THE    MEETING-PLACE 

OF 

GEOLOGY    AND    HISTORY 


Sir  J.  William  Dawson,  LL.D.,  RG.S. 


"The  name  of  Sir  William  Dawson  on  a  titlepage  is  a  guarantee 
of  two  things:  one,  that  the  book  is  orthodox  and  thoroughly 
evangelical;  and  the  other,  that  the  matter  of  it  is  first-class,  accord- 
ing to  the  highest  scientific  standard.'1 

— THE  ILLUSTRATED  CHRISTIAN  WEEKLY. 


The    Meeting-Place     of    Geology    and    History. 

Illustrated.      I2mo,  cloth $1.25 

Sir  William  Dawson's  aim  in  this  volume  is  aptly  described 
by  the  title.  It  is  to  fix  with  that  measure  of  definiteness  which 
the  best  and  latest  research  permits  the  period  when  human  life 
began  on  the  earth,  and  to  discuss  from  the  geologic  standpoint 
the  many  questions  of  interest  connected  with  this  event.  He 
shows  in  how  many  different  ways  science  confirms  the  teaching 
.of  Scripture  in  this  department  of  knowledge. 

Modern  Ideas  of  Evolution  as  related  to  Revela- 
tion and  Science.  Sixth  Edition,  Revised  and 
Enlarged.  I2mo,  cloth 1 .50 

Carefully  and  thoroughly  revised  in  the  light  of  the  criticism, 
favorable  and  adverse,  which  the  preceding  five  editions  have 
received. 

"  Dr.  Dawson  is  himself  a  man  of  eminent  judicial  temper,  a 
widely  read  scholar,  and  a  close,  profound  thinker,  which  makes 
the  blow  he  deals  the  Evolution  hypothesis  all  the  heavier.  We 
commend  it  to  our  readers  as  one  of  the  most  thorough  and 
searching  books  on  the  subject  yet  published." — The  Christian 
at  Work. 

The  Chain  of  Life  in  Geological  Time.  A  Sketch 
of  the  Origin  and  Succession  of  Animals  and  Plants. 
Illustrated.  Third  and  Revised  Edition.  I2mo, 
cloth 2.00 

"The  judicial  style  of  the  writer  in  argument  is  enlivened 
by  his  ability  to  render  science  most  attractive  and  popular.  He 
holds  to  the  orthodox  view  of  the  ordered  plan  of  the  universe, 
and  yet  considers  without  prejudice  the  alluring  ideas  prevalent 
in  modern  scientific  circles." — The  Christian  Advocate  {N.  Y.) 

Egypt  and  Syria.     Their  Physical  Features  in  Relation  to 
4{       Bible  History.     Second  Edition,  Revised  and  Enlarged. 
V       With  many  Illustrations.     "By-Paths  of  Bible  Knowl- 
edge" Vol.  VI.     1 2mo,  cloth i  .20 

"  This  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  series  to  which  it 
belongs.  It  is  the  result  of  personal  observation,  and  the  work 
of  a  practised  geological  observer." — The  British  Quarterly 
Review. 


THE  MEETING-PLACE 


OF 


GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 


j:1  w: 


BY 


SIR  >'  WILLIAM   DAWSON,    LL.D.,    F.R.S. 


AUTHOR  OF 

'THE  EARTH  AND  MAN,"   "MODERN  IDEAS  OF  EVOLUTION," 
OF  LIFE  IN  GEOLOGICAL  TIME,"  ETC. 


"THE  CHAIN 


FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK  CHICAGO  TORONTO 

The  Religious  Tract  Society,  London 


Copyright,  1894 


PREFACE 


THE  object  of  this  little  book  is  to  give  a  clear  and 
accurate  statement  of  facts  bearing  on  the  character 
of  the  debatable  ground  intervening  between  the 
later  part  of  the  geological  record  and  the  begin- 
nings of  sacred  and  secular  history. 

The  subject  is  one  as  yet  full  of  difficulty ;  but 
the  materials  for  its  treatment  have  been  rapidly 
accumulating,  and  it  is  hoped  that  it  may  prove 
possible  to  render  it  more  interesting  and  intelligible 
than  heretofore, 

J.  W.  D 


M79390 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    GENERAL  NATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECT       .       .11 

II.    THE  WORLD  BEFORE  MAN 18 

III.  THE  EARLIEST  TRACES  OF  MAN      ...  27 

IV.  THE  PALANTHROPIC  AGE 40 

V.    SUBDIVISIONS  AND  CONDITIONS  OF  THE  PAL- 
ANTHROPIC AGE 69 

VI.    END  OF  THE  PALANTHROPIC  AGE       .       .    .  85 

VII.    THE  EARLY  NEANTHROPIC  AGE      ...  94 

VIII.    THE  PALANTHROPIC  -AGE  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF 

HISTORY 106 

IX.    THE  DELUGE  OF  NOAH 121 

X.    SPECIAL  QUESTIONS  RESPECTING  THE  DELUGE  151 

XL    THE  PREHISTORIC  AND  HISTORIC  IN  THE  EAST  164 

XII.    THE  NEANTHROPIC  DISPERSION  .       .       .    .  183 

XIII.    SUMMARY  OF  RESULTS 210 

INDEX      ,,,,,,,,,  219 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

SECTION  AT  TRENTON,  ON  THE  DELAWARE,  SHOWING  THE 
RELATION  OF  THE  STONE  IMPLEMENTS  TO  THE  GLACIAL  (?) 
GRAVELS  (after  Holmes) 32 

CHIPPED  QUARTZITES,  MODERN  AMERICAN  (after  Holmes)  .      33 

FLINT   HACHE   OF   THE   ANCIENT    OR    CHELLEAN   TYPE, 

AURILLAC  (after  Carthaillac) 41 

CAVE  OF  GOYET,  BELGIUM  (Section  after  Dupont)         .        .      47 

LANCE  HEAD  FORMED  OF  A  FLINT  FLAKE  (CAVE  OF  Mou- 
STIER).  THE  FLAT  FACE  SHOWS  A  BULB  OF  PERCUSSION 
(after  Falsan) 49 

OUTLINE  OF  THE  SKULL  OF  THE  «  OLD  MAN  OF  CRO- 
MAGNON  '  (after  Christy  and  Lartet) 54 

THE  FIRST  SKELETON  FOUND  IN  THE  MENTONE  CAVES 

(after  Riviere) 57 

HANDLE  OF  A  PIERCER,  OR  BODKIN,  IN  BONE,  FROM  LAU- 
GERIE  BASSE,  IN  FORM  OF  A  DEER  59 

FLINT  FLAKE  KNIFE,  FOUND  IN  THE  HAND  OF  THE  '  GIANT* 
SKELETON  OF  MENTONE  (after  Evans)  .  .;  ,  •  .  59 

NEANDERTHAL  SKULL — TWO  OUTLINES  :  THE  OUTER  GIVING 
THE  MORE  CORRECT  FORM  (from  Science}  ...  60 

SKULL  OF  CANSTADT  TYPE  FOUND  AT  SPY,  BELGIUM,  BY 
FRAIPONT  AND  LOHEST  .  oi 


10  GEOLOGV  AND  HISTORY 

PAGt 

OUTLINE  OP  MAMMOTH,  CARVED  ON  A  PLATE  OF  IVORY, 
FROM  THE  CAVE  OF  LA  MADELEINE  ....  68 

TOOTH  OF  CAVE  BEAR,  WITH  ENGRAVING  OF  A  SEAL, 
FROM  A  COLLAR  FOUND  AT  SORDES,  PYRENEES  (after 
-Carthaillac) 71 

THE  SKELETON  OF  LAUGERIE  BASSE,  DORDOGNE,  SHOWING 
THE  POSITION  OF  THE  PERFORATED  SHELLS  ON  THE 
LIMBS  AND  FOREHEAD  (after  Carthaillac) ....  79 

SKULL  FROM  TRUCHERE,  SHOWING  A  PECULIAR  PALAN- 
THROPIC  TYPE  ALLIED  TO  NEANTHROPic  RACES  (after 

Quatrefages)        .  .         .         .         .         •    -    •         .       82 

FLINT  FLAKES  OF  TWO  TYPES,  FROM  PALANTHROPIC  AND 
NEANTHROPIC  CAVES  IN  THE  LEBANON  .  .  .  .  97 

RESTORATION  OF  THE  SEPULCHRAL  CAVE  OF  FRONTAL, 
BELGIUM  (after  Dupont) 99 

CROMLECH  AT  FONTANACCIA,  CORSICA  (after  De  Mortillet) .     105 

MAP  SHOWING  THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  AND  GEOLOGICAL  RE- 
LATIONS OF  THE  SITE  OF  EDEN,  AS  DESCRIBED  IN 
GENESIS  .  .  %•  •  '  .  ".^  . •-.».,  .»  -  «  -  ,  .  117 

MAP  SHOWING  LINES  OF  POSTDILUVIAN  MIGRATIONS  FROM 
SHINAR,  AS  IN  GENESIS  x.  "  >  .  .  • .  .  185 

HEAD  ILLUSTRATING  THE  MOST  ANCIENT  TYPE  OF  CUSHITE 
TURANIAN,  FROM  TEL-LOH  (after  de  Sarzec).  The  cap  is 
perhaps  an  imitation  of  the  antediluvian  shell-caps,  like  that 
of  the  '  Man  of  Mentone ' .  191 


THE    MEETING-PLACE 

OF 

GEOLOGY   AND    HISTORY 


CHAPTER   I 

GENERAL  NATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECT 

THE  science  of  the  earth  and  the  history  of  man, 
though  cultivated  by  very  different  classes  of 
specialists  and  in  very  different  ways,  must  have 
their  meeting-place.  They  must  indeed  not  only 
meet,  but  overlap  and  run  abreast  of  each  other 
throughout  nearly  the  whole  time  occupied  by  the 
existence  of  man  on  the  earth.  The  geologist,  from 
his  point  of  view,  studies  all  the  stratified  crust  of 
the  earth,  down  to  the  mud  deposited  by  last  year's 
river  inundations.  The  historian,  aided  by  the 
archaeologist,  has  written  and  monumental  evidence 
carrying  him  back  to  the  time  of  the  earliest  known 
men,  many  thousands  of  years  ago.  Throughout  all 


ta  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

this  interval  the  two  records  must  have  run  more  or 
less  parallel  to  each  other,  and  must  be  in  contact 
along  the  whole  line. 

The  geologist,  ascending  from  the  oldest  and 
lowest  portions  of  the  earth's  crust,  and  dealing  for 
millions  of  years  with  physical  forces  and  the  in- 
stinctive powers  of  animals  alone,  at  length  as  he 
approaches  the  surface  finds  himself  in  contact  with 
an  entirely  new  agency,  the  free-will  and  conscious 
action  of  man.  It  is  true  that  at  first  the  effects  of 
these  are  small,  and  the  time  in  which  they  have  been 
-active  is  insignificant  in  comparison  with  that  occu- 
previous  geological  ages  ;  but  they  introduce 

r  tjuestrohs  'which  constantly  grow  in  importance, 
down  to  those  later  times  in  which  human  agency 
has  so  profoundly  affected  the  surface  of  the  earth 
and  its  living  inhabitants.  Finally,  the  geologist  is 
obliged  to  have  recourse  to  human  observation  and 
testimony  for  his  information  respecting  those  modern 
causes  to  which  he  has  to  appeal  for  the  explanation 
of  former  changes,  and  has  to  adduce  effects  produced 
by  human  agency  in  illustration  of,  or  in  contrast 
with,  mutations  in  the  pre-human  periods. 

The  historian,  on  the  other  hand,  finds,  as  he 
passes  backward  into  earlier  ages,  documentary 
evidence  failing  him,  and  much  of  what  he  can  obtain 
becoming  mythical,  vague  or  uncertain,  or  difficult  of 
explanation  by  modern  analogies,  until  at  length  he 
is  fain  to  have  recourse  to  the  pick-axe  and  spade, 
and  to  endeavour  to  disinter  from  the  earth  the 


GENERAL  NATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECT      13 

scanty  relics  of  primeval  man,  much  as  the  geologist 
searches  in  the  bedded  rocks  for  the  fossils  which 
they  contain.  He  has  even  learned  to  use  for  these 
earliest  ages  the  term  prehistoric,  and  so  practically 
to  transfer  them  to  the  domain  of  the  archaeologist 
and  geologist. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  if  we  seek  for  the 
meeting-place  of  geology  and  history,  we  shall  find 
not  a  mere  point  or  line  of  contact,  but  a  series  of 
such  points,  and  even  a  complicated  splicing  together 
of  different  threads  of  investigation,  which  it  may  be 
difficult  to  disentangle,  and  which  the  geological 
specialist  alone,  or  the  historical  specialist  alone,  may 
be  unable  fully  to  understand.  The  object  of  this 
little  volume  will  be  to  unravel  as  many  as  possible 
of  these  threads  of  contact,  and  to  make  their  value 
and  meaning  plain  to  the  general  reader,  so  that  he 
may  not,  on  the  one  hand,  blindly  follow  mere 
assertions  and  speculations,  or,  on  the  other,  fail  to 
appreciate  ascertained  and  weighty  facts  relating  to 
this  great  and  important  matter  of  human  origins. 

This  is  the  more  necessary  since,  even  in  works 
of  some  pretension,  there  are  tendencies  on  the  one 
hand  to  overlook  geological  evidence  in  favour  of 
written  records,  or  even  of  conjectural  hypotheses, 
and  on  the  other  to  reject  all  early  historical  testi- 
mony or  tradition  as  valueless.  We  shall  find  that 
neither  of  these  extremes  is  conducive  to  accurate 
conclusions.  Researches  of  a  geologico-historical 
character  necessarily  also  bring  us  in  view  of  the 


14  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

early  history  of  our  sacred  books.  This  may  be  to 
some  extent  an  evil,  as  inviting  the  excitement  of 
religious  controversy ;  but  on  the  other  hand  the  fact 
that  the  early  history  incorporated  in  the  Bible  goes 
back  to  the  introduction  of  man,  and  connects  this 
with  the  completion  of  the  physical  and  organic 
preparations  for  his  advent,  has  many  and  important 
uses.  It  would  seem  indeed  that  it  is  a  great  advan- 
tage to  our  Christian  civilisation  that  our  sacred  books 
begin  with  a  history  of  creation,  giving  an  idea  of 
order  and  progress  in  the  creative  work.  Whether 
we  regard  the  days  of  creation  as  literal  days  or  days 
of  vision  of  a  seer,  or  whether  we  hold  them  to  be 
days  of  God  and  His  working,  suitable  to  the  Eternal 
One  and  His  mighty  plan,  and  bearing  the  same 
relation  to  Him  that  ordinary  working  days  bear,  to 
us,  we  cannot  escape  the  idea  of  an  orderly  work  in 
time.  This,  while  it  delivers  the  Bible  reader  from 
the  extravagant  myths  current  among  heathen 
peoples,  ancient  and  modern,  predisposes  him  to 
expect  that  something  may  be  learned  from  nature 
as  to  its  beginning  and  progress.  In  like  manner 
the  short  statements  in  Genesis  respecting  the  early 
history  of  man  have  awakened  curiosity  as  to  human 
origins,  and  have  led  us  to  search  for  further  details 
derivable  from  ancient  monuments.  The  ordinary 
Christian  who  believes  his  Bible  is  thus  so  far  on  his 
way  toward  a  rational  geology  and  archaeology,  and 
cannot  say  with  truth  that  he  is  absolutely  ignorant 
of  the  pre-human  history  of  the  earth.  His  notions, 


GENERAL  NATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECT       15 

it  is  true,  may  be  imperfect,  either  by  reason  of  the 
brevity  of  the  record  to  which  he  trusts,  or  of  his  own 
imperfect  knowledge  of  its  contents,  but  they  give  to 
historical  and  archaeological  inquiry  an  interest  and 
importance  which  they  could  not  otherwise  possess.1 

The  earth  has  indeed,  especially  in  our  own  time, 
and  under  the  impulse  of  Christian  civilisation,  made 
wonderful  revelations  as  to  its  early  history,  to  which 
we  do  well  to  take  heed,  as  antidotes  to  some  of  the 
speculations  which  are  palmed  upon  a  credulous  world 
as  established  truths.  We  have  now  very  complete 
data  for  tracing  the  earth  from  its  original  formless 
or  chaotic  state  through  a  number  of  formative 
and  preparatory  stages  up  to  its  modern  condition ; 
but  perhaps  the  parts  of  its  history  least  clearly 
known,  especially  to  general  readers,  are  those  that 
relate  to  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  the  creative 
work.  The  earlier  stages  are  those  most  different 
from  our  experience  and  whose  monuments  are  most 
obscure.  The  later  stages  on  the  other  hand  have 
left  fewer  monuments,  and  these  have  been  compli- 
cated with  modern  changes  under  human  influence. 
Besides  this,  it  is  always  difficult  to  piece  together  the 
deductions  from  merely  monumental  evidence  and 

1  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  pecuniary  means,  the  skill  and 
labour  expended  in  research  in  the  more  ancient  historic  regions,  have 
to  so  large  an  extent  been  those  of  Christians  interested  in  the  Bible 
history.  Yet  some  litterateurs ;  who  have  contributed  nothing  to  these 
results,  attempt  to  distort  and  falsify  them  in  the  interest  of  an  un- 
historical  and  unscientific  criticism,  and  even  to  taunt  the  Bible  as 
adverse  to  archaeological  inquiry. 


16  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

the  statements  of  written  or  traditional  history.  There 
would  seem,  however,  to  be  now  in  our  possession 
sufficient  facts  to  link  the  human  period  to  those 
which  preceded  it,  and  thereby  to  sweep  away  a  large 
amount  of  misconception  and  misrepresentation  in 
one  department  at  least  of  the  relations  of  natural 
science  with  history. 

I  have  called  the  subject  with  which  we  are  to 
deal  the  meeting-place  of  two  sciences.  In  reality, 
however,  it  might  be  embraced  under  the  name 
anthropology,  the  science  of  man,  which  covers  both 
his  old  prehistoric  ages  as  revealed  by  geology  and 
archaeology,  and  the  more  modern  world  which  is 
still  present,  or  of  which  we  have  written  records. 
The  main  point  to  be  observed  is  that  it  is  necessary 
to  place  distinctly  before  our  minds  the  fact  that 
we  are  studying  a  period  in  which,  on  the  one  hand, 
we  have  to  observe  the  precautions  necessary  in 
geological  investigation,  and  on  the  other  to  examine 
the  evidence  of  history  and  tradition.  A  failure  either 
on  the  one  side  or  the  other  may  lead  to  the  gravest 
errors. 

In  studying  the  subjects  thus  indicated  it  will  be 
necessary  first  to  notice  shortly  the  history  of  the 
earth  before  the  human  period,  and  its  condition 
at  the  time  of  man's  introduction.  We  may  then 
inquire  as  to  the  earliest  known  remains  of  man 
preserved  in  the  crust  of  the  earth,  and  trace  his 
progress  through  the  earlier  part  of  the  anthropic  or 
human  period,  in  so  far  as  it  is  revealed  to  us  by  the 


GENERAL  NATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECT      17 

relics  of  man  and  his  works  preserved  in  the  earth. 
We  shall  then  be  in  a  position  to  inquire  as  to  the 
form  in  which  the  same  chain  of  events  is  presented 
to  us  by  history  and  tradition,  and  to  discover  the 
leading  points  in  which  the  two  records  agree  or 
appear  to  differ. 

It  may  be  necessary  here  to  define  a  few  terms. 
The  two  latest  of  the  great  geological  periods  may  be 
termed  respectively  the  pleistocene  and  the  modern, 
or  anthropic,  the  latter  being  the  human  period  or 
age  of  man.  The  pleistocene  includes  what  has  been 
called  the  glacial  age,  a  period  of  exceptional  cold 
and  of  much  subsidence  and  elevation  of  the  land,  in 
the  northern  hemisphere  at  least.  The  modern,  or 
anthropic,  is  for  our  present  purpose  divisible  into 
two  sections — the  early  modern,  or  palanthropic, 
sometimes  called  quaternary,  or  post-glacial,  and 
which  may  coincide  with  the  antediluvian  period  of 
human  history ;  and  the  neanthropic,  extending  on- 
ward to  the  present  time.1 

1  The  terms  '  Palaeolithic '  and  '  Neolithic '  have  been  used  for  the 
men  of  the  Palanthropic  and  Neanthropic  ages ;  but  these  are  objec- 
tionable, as  implying  that  these  ages  can  be  best  distinguished  by  the 
use  of  certain  stone  implements,  which  is  not  the  fact.  I  have  pre- 
ferred, therefore,  to  call  the  earlier  races  of  men  palaocosmic,  and  the 
later  neocosmic^  where  it  may  be  necessary  to  refer  to  them  as  races ; 
while  the  periods  to  which  they  belong  are  respectively  the  Palanthropic 
and  Neanthropic*  By  the  use  of  these  terms  all  ambiguity  will  be 
avoided. 


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1 3  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 


CHAPTER    II 
THE  WORLD   BEFORE   MAN 

MAN  is  of  recent  introduction  on  the  earth.  For 
millions  of  years  the  slow  process  of  world-making 
had  been  going  on,  with  reference  to  physical  struc- 
ture and  to  the  lower  grades  of  living  creatures. 
Only  within  a  few  thousand  years  does  our  globe 
seem  to  have  been  fitted  for  its  highest  tenant.  The 
evidence  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  any  text-book  of 
geology.  I  propose  here  merely  to  present  the  his- 
tory of  the  earth  in  a  series  of  word-pictures,  introduc- 
tory to  our  special  subject. 

Our  first  picture  may  be  that  of  a  nebula,  vast 
and  vaporous,  containing  the  mixed  and  unconsoli- 
dated  materials  of  the  sun  and  planets — a  void  and 
desolate  mass,  slowly  aggregating  itself  under  the 
influence  of  gravitation. 

Our  next  may  be  that  of  an  incandescent  globe, 
molten  and  glowing,  and  surrounded  by  a  vast  vapor- 
ous envelope,  but  tending  by  degrees  to  a  condition 
in  which  it  shall  have  a  solid  crust,  on  which  the 
greater  part  of  the  watery  vapour  suspended  in  its 
atmosphere  is  to  be  condensed  into  a  heated  ocean. 


THE    WORLD  BEFORE  MAN  19 

Our  third  picture  may  represent  the  world  of 
what  geologists  call  the  archaean,  or  eozoic  period, 
when  the  crust  had  been  furrowed  up  into  ridges  of 
land,,  and  corresponding  but  wider  depressions  occu- 
pied by  the  sea.  Into  the  latter  the  rains  falling  on 
the  land  are  carrying  sediment  derived  from  the 
wasting  rocks,  though  the  waters  are  still  warm  and 
the  thinner  parts  of  the  crust  are  still  welling  out 
rocky  material,  either  molten  or  dissolved  in  heated 
water.  In  this  period  there  were  probably  low  forms 
of  animal  life  in  the  waters  and  plants  on  the  land, 
though  we  know  little  of  their  exact  nature. 

A  fourth  picture  may  represent  that  great  and 
long-continued  palaeozoic  period  in  which  the  waters 
swarmed  with  many  forms  of  life,  when  fishes  were 
introduced  into  the  sea,  and  when  the  land  became 
covered  with  dense  forests  of  plants  allied  to  the 
modern  club-mosses,  ferns,  mares'-tails  and  pines ; 
while  insects,  scorpions  and  snails,  and  some  of  the 
humbler  forms  of  reptiles,  found  place  on  the  land. 

Returning  after  an  interval,  we  should  see  a  fifth 
picture,  that  of  the  mesozoic  world.  This  was  the 
age  of  reptiles,  when  animals  of  that  class  attained 
their  highest  and  most  gigantic  forms,  and  occupied 
in  the  sea,  on  the  land,  and  in  the  air  the  places  now 
held  by  the  mammals  and  the  birds  ;  while  the  con- 
tinents were  covered  with  a  flora  distinct  alike  from 
that  of  the  previous  and  succeeding  periods,  replaced, 
however,  as  time  went  on  by  forests  very  like  those 
of  the  modern  world.  In  this  age  the  earliest  mam- 

B  2 


20  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

mals  or  ordinary  quadrupeds  were  introduced,  few  at 
first,  small  and  of  low  rank  in  their  class.  Birds  also 
made  their  appearance,  and  toward  the  close  of  the 
period  fishes  of  modern  types  swarmed  for  the  first 
time  in  the  sea. 

Lastly,  we  might  see  in  the  cenozoic,  or  tertiary 
age,  the  newest  of  all,  quadrupeds  dominant  on  the 
land  and  modern  types  of  animal  life  in  the  sea.  In 
this  period  our  continents  finally  assumed  their  present 
forms.  Toward  its  close  and  after  many  vicissitudes 
of  geography  and  climate,  and  several  successive 
dynasties  of  mammalian  life,  man  and  the  land 
animals  now  his  contemporaries  occupied  the  world, 
and  thus  the  cenozoic  passes  into  the  anthropic,  or 
modern  period,  called  by  some,  but  without  good 
reason,  'quaternary/  since  it  is  in  all  respects  a 
proper  continuation  of  the  tertiary,  or  cenozoic.1 

This  last  age  of  the  world  is  so  intimately  con- 
nected with  man  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  consider 
it  more  in  detail.  More  particularly  we  may  en- 
deavour to  answer,  if  we  can,  the  questions  of  order 
and/time  involved  in  man's  late  appearance. 
^V  No  geologist  would  expect  to  find  any  remains  oi 
man  or  his  works  in  the  periods  represented  by  our 
five  earlier  pictures,  because  in  these  periods  the 
physical  conditions  necessary  to  man  and  the  animals 
nearest  to  him  in  structure  do  not  appear  to  have 

1  It  will  be  seen  that  our  six  pictures  are  in  some  degree  parallel 
with  the  *  days '  of  creation.  This  is  not  an  intentional  reconciliation. 
It  merely  expresses  the  fact  of  the  case,  whatever  its  significance. 


THE    WORLD  BEFORE  MAN  21 

existed,  and  their  places  in  nature  were  occupied  by 
lower  types. 

Nor  for  similar  reasons  would  we  expect  to  meet 
with  man  in  the  earlier  part  of  that  last,  or  ceno- 
zoic,  period  in  which  we  still  live ;  and  in  point 
of  fact  it  is  only  in  superficial  deposits  of  the  later 
part  of  this  last  great  period  of  the  earth's  history 
that  we  actually  meet  with  evidence  of  the  existence 
of  the  human  species. 

If  there  is  based  on  this  fact  a  question  as  to  the 
actual  date  of  man's  first  appearance,  the  physical 
considerations  indicate  about  twenty  millions  of  years 
for  the  whole  duration  of  the  earth.  Setting  apart,  say, 
a  fourth  of  this  time  for  the  early  pre-geologic  con- 
dition of  the  world,  the  remainder  may  be  roughly 
estimated  as  five  millions  for  the  archaean,  or  eozoic, 
six  for  the  palaeozoic,  three  for  the  mesozoic,  and  one 
for  the  cenozoic.1  Of  the  last,  the  later  part,  in 
which  there  is  a  possibility  of  the  existence  of  man, 
will  be  limited  to  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  ; 
and  within  this  the  certainly  known  remains  of  man, 
whether  attributed  as  by  some  to  the  latest  inter- 
glacial  period,  or  to  the  post-glacial — a  mere  question 
of  terms,  and  not  of  facts — cannot  be  older,  according 
to  the  best  geological  estimates,  than  from  seven 
thousand  to  ten  thousand  years.  This,  according  to 
our  present  knowledge,  is  the  maximum  date  of  the 

1  The  absolute  length  of  these  periods  is,  of  course,  a  matter  of 
estimation  ;  but  the  relative  lengths  of  the  different  ages  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  fair  approximation,  based  on  facts. 


22  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

oldest  traces  of  man,  and  probably  these  are  nearer 
in  age  to  the  smaller  than  to  the  larger  number. 

If  the  reader  will  take  the  trouble  to  draw  on 
paper  a  scale  of  twenty  inches,  each  of  these  will 
represent  a  million  of  years  of  the  earth's  history,  and 
the  known  duration  of  the  human  period  may  be 
indicated  by  a  thickish  line  at  one  end  of  the  scale. 
We  may  thus  represent  to  the  eye  the  recency  of 
man's  appearance,  so  far  as  at  present  known  to 
science. 

It  may  be  said  that  all  this  is  mere  assertion.  It 
fairly  represents,  however,  the  conclusions  reached  on 
the  latest  geological  evidence,  though  this  evidence 
would  demand  for  its  full  detail  a  larger  space  than 
the  whole  of  this  little  volume.  References  are  given 
below  to  works  in  which  this  evidence  will  be  found.1 

It  may  also  be  objected  that  if,  as  held  by  some 
evolutionists,  man  was  slowly  developed  from  lower 
animals,  and  if  his  earliest  known  remains  are  still 
human  in  their  characters,  he  must  have  had  a  vastly 
longer  history  covering  the  periods  of  his  gradual 
change  from,  say,  ape-like  forms.  This  is  admitted  ; 
but  then  we  have  as  yet  no  good  evidence  that  man 
was  so  developed,  and  no  remains  of  intermediate 
forms  are  yet  known  to  science.  Even  should  some 
animal,  either  recent  or  fossil,  be  discovered  inter- 
mediate in  structure  between  man  and  the  highest 
apes,  we  should  still  require  proof  that  it  was  the 

1  Lyell's  Students*  Manual ;  Dana's  Manual ;  Prestwich's  Geology j 
The  Story  of  the  Earth,  by  the  author. 


THE    WORLD  BEFORE  MAN  23 

ancestor  of  man,  by  the  occurrence  of  connecting 
forms,  or  otherwise.  As  the  facts  now  stand,  the 
earliest  known  remains  of  man  are  still  human,  and 
tell  us  nothing  as  to  previous  stages  of  development. 
We  must  now  glance  a  little  more  particularly  at 
what  may  be  termed  the  more  immediate  antece- 
dents of  man.  The  latest  great  period  of  the  earth's 
geological  history  (the  cenozoic)  was  ingeniously 
subdivided  by  Lyell,  on  the  ground  of  the  percentages 
of  extinct  and  surviving  species  of  marine  shells  con- 
tained in  its  several  beds.  According  to  this  me'thod, 
which,  with  some  modifications  in  detail,  is  still 
accepted,  the  eocene  age,  or  that  of  the  dawn  of  the 
recent,  includes  those  formations  in  which  the  per- 
centage of  modern  or  still  living  species  of  marine 
animals  does  not  exceed  three  and  a  half,  all  the  other 
species  found  being  extinct.  The  miocene  (less  re- 
cent) includes  beds  in  which  the  percentage  of  living 
species  does  not  exceed  thirty-five.  The  pliocene 
(more  recent)  includes  beds  in  which  the  living  forms 
of  marine  life  exceed  thirty-five  per  cent,  but  there 
is  still  a  considerable  proportion  of  extinct  species. 
Newer  than  this  we  have  the  pleistocene  (most  recent), 
in  which  there  are  scarcely  as  many  extinct  species 
as  there  are  of  recent  in  the  eocene.  Lastly,  the 
modern,  of  course,  includes  only  the  living  species  of 
the  modern  seas.  Other  geologists,  notably  Dawkins 
and  Gandry,  have  arrived  at  similar  results  from  a 
consideration  of  the  vertebrate  animals  of  the  land. 
In  the  eocene  we  find  numerous  remains  of  mammals, 


24  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

or  ordinary  land  quadrupeds,  but  all  are  extinct,  and 
nearly  all  belong  to  extinct  genera.  In  the  miocene 
there  are  many  living  genera,  but  no  species  that 
survive  to  the  present  time.  The  pliocene  begins  to 
show  a  few  living  species,  and  these  are  dominant  in 
the  succeeding  pleistocene. 

These  several  stages  of  the  cenozoic  were  also 
characterised  by  great  vicissitudes  of  geography  and 
climate.  In  the  early  and  middle  portions  of  the 
eocene,  much  of  the  land  of  the  northern  hemisphere 
was  under  the  sea  or  in  the  state  of  swamps  and 
marshes,  and  there  seems  to  have  been  a  very  mild 
and  equable  climate,  insomuch  that  plants  now 
limited  to  warm  temperate  regions  could  flourish  in 
Greenland.  It  is  further  to  be  observed  that  regions 
such  as  Mesopotamia,  Syria  and  Egypt,  which  are 
known  to  us  historically  as  among  the  earliest  abodes 
of  man,  were  at  this  time  under  the  ocean,  as  were 
also  rocks  that  now  appear  at  great  elevations  in  the 
highest  mountains  of  Europe  and  Asia.  For  example, 
the  limertones  through  which  the  Nile  has  cut  its 
valley  are  marine  beds  of  eocene  age,  and  beds  of 
the  same  period  holding  marine  remains  occur  at  an 
elevation  of  16,000  feet  in  the  Himalayan  region. 

In  the  miocene  the  amount  of  land  was  somewhat 
greater,  though  large  areas  of  the  continents  were 
still  under  the  sea,  and  the  climate  was  still  mild,  but 
for  reasons  to  be  stated  in  the  sequel  it  is  not  likely 
that  man  inhabited  the  warm  continents  of  this  age. 
The  pliocene  inaugurates  what  has  been  termed  a 


THE    WORLD  BEFORE  MAN  25 

continental  period,  when  the  land  of  the  northern 
hemisphere  was  higher  and  more  extensive  than  at 
present.  It  was  also  a  time  of  great  physical  change, 
when  much  erosion  of  valleys  and  sculpturing  of  the 
surface  of  the  land  occurred,  and  when  extensive  earth 
movements  and  ejections  of  igneous  rock  increased 
the  irregularity  of  the  surface  and  gave  greater  variety 
and  beauty  to  the  land.  The  pliocene  was  altogether 
a  most  important  period  for  giving  the  finishing 
touches  of  physical  geography,  and  in  it  several 
modern  species  of  land  animals  were  introduced  ;  but 
we  have  as  yet,  as  we  shall  find  in  the  sequel,  no 
certain  evidence  that  man  was  a  witness  of  the  move- 
ments and  sculpturing  of  the  earth's  crust,  so  im- 
portant in  the  preparation  of  his  future  home,  though 
statements  to  this  effect  have  been  made  on  grounds 
which  we  shall  have  to  consider. 

In  the  course  of  the  pliocene  the  previously  high 
temperature  of  the  northern  hemisphere  was  sensibly 
lowered,  and  at  its  close  the  pleistocene  period  intro- 
duced a  cold  and  wintry  climate,  along  with  gradual 
and  unequal  subsidence  of  the  land,  the  whole  pro- 
ducing that  most  dismal  of  the  geological  ages,  known 
as  the  *  glacial  period.'  At  this  time  much  of  the 
lower  land  of  the  continents  was  submerged  and  the 
mountains  became  covered  with  snow  and  ice,  leaving 
space  for  vegetable  and  animal  life  only  toward  the 
south  and  in  a  few  favoured  spots  in  the  higher 
latitudes.  There  is  much  difference  of  opinion 
among  geologists  as  to  the  extent,  duration  and 


26  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

vicissitudes  of  this  reign  of  ice,  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  it  destroyed  much  of  the  animal  and 
vegetable  life  of  the  pliocene,  or  obliged  it  to  migrate 
to  the  southward.  In  this  period  great  deposits  of 
mud,  sand  and  gravel  were  laid  down,  which  prepared 
the  world  for  a  new  departure  in  the  succeeding  age. 
This  we  may  name  the  post-glacial,  or  early  modern 
period,  and  in  it  we  have  the  most  certain  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  man,  though  the  geographical 
arrangement  of  our  continents  and  their  animal  in- 
habitants were  in  many  respects  different  from  what 
they  now  are.  If  geologists  are  right  in  the  conclu- 
sion already  stated,  that  the  close  of  the  glacial 
period  is  as  recent  as  7,000  years  ago,  this  will  give 
us  a  narrow  limit  in  time  for  the  age  of  man,  at 
least  under  his  present  conditions. 

While,  however,  there  is  an  absolute  consensus 
of  opinion  among  geologists  as  to  the  existence  of 
man  at  or  about  the  close  of  the  glacial  age,  in 
the  northern  temperate  regions  at  least,  there  are 
some  facts  which  have  been  supposed  to  indicate  a 
pre-glacial  human  period,  or  the  advent  of  man  even 
as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  cenozoic  time.  These 
merit  a  short  consideration. 


CHAPTER   III 
THE  EARLIEST  TRACES  OF  MAN 

IN  the  eocene,  or  earliest  cenozoic,  it  is  not  pre- 
tended by  anyone  that  man  existed,  except  inferen- 
tial ly,  on  the  ground  that  if  the  remains  we  know  in 
the  earliest  caves  and  gravels  belong  to  men  who 
were  developed  from  apes  on  the  method  of  natural 
selection,  their  ancestors  must  have  existed,  at  least 
in  a  semi-human  form,  in  the  eocene.  But  no  such 
precursors  of  man  are  yet  known  to  us.  It  would 
have  been  pleasant  to  believe  that  man  arrived  in 
time  to  see  the  beautiful  forests  and  to  enjoy  the  mild 
climate  of  the  golden  age  of  the  miocene,  and  this 
would  have  agreed  with  some  human  traditions ;  but 
the  probabilities  are  against  it,  as  we  know  no  one 
species  of  higher  animal  of  the  many  found  in  the 
miocene  that  has  survived  to  our  time.  The  privilege 
of  enjoying  the  forests  of  the  miocene  age  seems  to 
have  been  reserved  for  some  large  and  specialised 
monkeys,  which  even  Darwinians  can  scarcely  claim 
as  probable  ancestors  of  man.1  It  would  appear  also 
that  owing  to  increasing  refrigeration  of  climate  these 

1  Dryopithecus  and  Mesopithccus. 


28  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

apes  were  either  obliged  to  leave  Europe  for  warmer 
latitudes  or  became  extinct  in  the  succeeding  pliocene. 

There  are,  however,  in  France  two  localities,  one  in 
the  upper  and  the  other  in  the  middle  miocene,  which 
have  afforded  what  are  supposed  to  be  worked  flints.1 
The  geological  age  of  the  deposits  seems  in  both  cases 
beyond  question,  but  doubts  have  been  cast,  and  this 
seemingly  with  some  reason,  on  the  artificial  character 
of  the  flint  flakes,  while  in  the  case  of  some  examples 
which  appear  to  be  scrapers  and  borers,  like  those  in 
use  long  afterward  by  semi-civilised  peoples  for  work- 
ing in  bone  and  skin,  there  are  grave  doubts  whether 
they  actually  came  from  the  miocene  beds.  Lastly, 
it  has  even  been  suggested  that  these  flints  may  be 
the  handiwork  of  miocene  apes,  a  suggestion  not  so 
unreasonable  as  at  first  sight  it  appears,  when  taken 
in  connection  with  the  working  instincts  of  beavers 
and  other  animals.  Monkeys,  however,  seem  to  have 
less  of  this  gift  as  artificers  than  most  other  creatures. 
On  the  whole,  we  must  regard  the  existence  of  miocene 
man  as  not  proven,  though,  if  it  should  prove  to  be  a 
fact,  it  may  be  useful  to  some  of  the  scoffers  of  these 
days  to  know  that  it  would  not  be  so  irreconcilable 
with  the  Biblical  account  of  creation  as  they  seem  to 
suppose.  It  might,  however,  prove  a  serious  stum- 
bling-block to  orthodox  Darwinians,  and  might  raise 
some  difficulties  respecting  antediluvian  genealogies. 

In  the  pliocene  of  Europe  there  are  alleged  to  be 
instances  of  the  occurrence  of  human  bones.  One  of 

1  Puy,  Courny  and  Thenay. 


THE  EARLIEST  TRACES  OF  MAN  29 

these  is  that  of  the  skull  now  in  the  museum  of 
Florence,  supposed  to  have  been  found  in  the  pliocene 
of  the  Val  d'Arno.  It  is,  however,  a  skull  of  modern 
type,  and  may  have  been  brought  down  from  the 
surface  by  a  landslip.  But  this  explanation  does  not 
seem  to  apply  to  the  human  remains  found  in  lower 
pliocene  beds  at  Castelnedolo,  near  Brescia.  They 
include  a  nearly  entire  human  skeleton,  and  are  said 
by  good  observers  to  have  been  imbedded  in  undis- 
turbed pliocene  beds.  M.  Quatrefages,  who  has 
described  them,  and  whose  testimony  should  be  con- 
sidered as  that  of  an  expert,  was  satisfied  that  the 
remains  had  not  been  interred,  but  were  part  of  the 
original  deposit.  Unfortunately  the  skull  of  the  only 
perfect  skeleton  is  said  to  have  been  of  fair  propor- 
tions and  superior  to  those  of  the  ruder  types  of  post- 
glacial men.  This  has  cast  a  shade  of  suspicion  on 
the  discovery,  especially  on  the  part  of  evolutionists, 
who  think  it  is  not  in  accordance  with  theory  that 
man  should  retrograde  between  the  pliocene  and  the 
early  modern  period,  instead  of  advancing.  Still  we 
may  ask,  why  not  ?  If  men  existed  in  the  fine 
climates  of  the  miocene  and  early  pliocene,  why 
should  they  not  have  been  a  noble  race,  suited  to  their 
environment ;  and  when  the  cold  of  the  glacial  period 
intervened,  with  its  scarcity  and  hardships,  might  they 
not  have  deteriorated,  to  be  subsequently  improved 
when  better  conditions  supervened?  This  would  cer- 
tainly not  be  contradictory  to  experience  in  the  case 
of  varieties  of  other  animals,  however  at  variance 


30  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

with  a  hypothetical  idea  of  necessarily  progressive 
improvement.  Let  us  hope  that  the  existence  of 
European  pliocene  man  will  be  established,  and  that 
he  will  be  found  to  have  been  not  of  low  and  bestial 
type,  but,  as  the  discoveries  above  referred  to  if 
genuine  would  indicate,  a  worthy  progenitor  of  modern 
races  of  men. 

It  still  remains  to  inquire  whether  man  may  have 
made  his  appearance  at  the  close  of  the  pliocene  or 
in  the  early  stages  of  the  pleistocene,  before  the  full 
development  of  the  glacial  conditions  of  that  period. 
Perhaps  the  most  important  indications  of  this  kind 
are  those  adduced  by  Dr.  Mourlon,  of  the  Geological 
Survey  of  Belgium,1  from  which  it  would  appear  that 
worked  flints  and  broken  bones  of  animals  occur  in 
deposits,  the  relations  of  which  would  indicate  that 
they  belong  either  to  the  base  of  the  pleistocene  or 
close  of  the  pliocene.  They  are  imbedded  in  sands 
derived  from  eocene  and  pliocene  beds,  and  supposed 
to  have  been  remanie  by  wind  action.  With  the  mo- 
desty of  a  true  man  of  science,  Mourlon  presents  his 
facts,  and  does  not  insist  too  strongly  on  the  important 
conclusion  to  which  they  seem  to  tend,  but  he  has 
certainly  established  the  strongest  case  yet  on  record 
for  the  existence  of  tertiary  man.  With  this  should, 
however,  be  placed  the  facts  adduced  in  a  similar  sense 
by  Prestwich  in  his  paper  on  the  worked  flints  of 
Ightham.2 

1  Bulletin  de  F Academic  Royale  de  Belgique,  1889. 

*  Journal  of  the  Geological  Society ',  London,  May  1889. 


THE  EARLIEST  TRACES  OF  MAN  31 

Should  this  be  established,  the  curious  result  will 
follow  that  man  must  have  been  the  witness  of  two 
great  continental  subsidences,  or  deluges,  that  of  the 
early  pleistocene  and  the  early  modern,  the  former 
of  which,  and  perhaps  the  latter  also,  must  have  been 
accompanied  with  a  great  access  of  cold  in  the 
northern  hemisphere.  It  seems,  however,  more  likely 
that  the  facts  will  be  found  to  admit  of  a  different 
explanation. 

Every  reader  of  the  scientific  journals  of  the 
United  States  must  be  aware  of  the  numerous  finds 
of  '  palaeolithic  '  implements  in  *  glacial '  gravels, 
indicating  a  far  greater  antiquity  of  man  in  Ame- 
rica than  on  other  grounds  we  have  a  right  to 
imagine.  I  have  endeavoured  to  show,  in  a  work 
published  several  years  ago,1  how  much  doubt  on 
geological  grounds  attaches  to  the  reports  of  these 
discoveries,  and  how  uncertain  is  the  reference  of  the 
supposed  implements  to  undisturbed  glacial  deposits, 
and  how  much  such  of  the  *  palaeoliths '  as  appear  to 
be  the  work  of  man  resemble  the  rougher  tools  and 
rejectamenta  of  the  modern  Indians.  But  since  the 
publication  of  that  work,  so  great  a  number  of  '  finds  ' 
have  been  recorded,  that  despite  their  individual  im- 
probability, one  was  almost  overwhelmed  by  the  coin- 
cidence of  so  many  witnesses.  Now  the  bubble  seems 
to  have  been  effectually  pricked  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmesj 
of  the  American  Geological  Survey,  who  has  published 

1  Fossil  Man,  London,  1880. 


32  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

his  observations  in  the  American  Journal  of  Anthropo- 
logy and  elsewhere.1 

One  of  the  most  widely-known  examples  was  that 
of  Trenton,  on  the  Delaware,  where  there  was  a  bed 
of  gravel  alleged  to  be  pleistocene,  and  which  seemed 
to  contain  enough  of  'palaeolithic'  implements  to 


SECTION   AT  TRENTON,    ON   THE    DELAWARE,    SHOWING    THE   RELA- 
TION  OF  THE  STONE  IMPLEMENTS   TO  THE  GLACIAL  (?)   GRAVELS 

(after  Holmes) 

stock  all  the  museums  in  the  world.  The  evidence 
of  age  was  not  satisfactory  from  a  geological  point 
of  view,  and  Holmes,  with  the  aid  of  a  deep  exca- 
vation made  for  a  city  sewer,  has  shown  that  the 
supposed  implements  do  not  belong  to  the  undis- 
turbed gravel,  but  merely  to  a  talus  of  loose  debris 

1  Science ,  November  1892  ;  Journal  of  Geology,  1893. 


34.  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

lying  against  it,  and  to  which  modern  Indians 
resorted  to  find  material  for  implements,  and  left 
behind  them  rejected  or  unfinished  pieces.  This 
alleged  discovery  has  therefore  no  geological  or 
anthropological  significance.  The  same  acute  and 
industrious  observer  has  inquired  into  a  number  of 
similar  cases  in  different  parts  of  the  United  States, 
and  finds  all  liable  to  objections  on  similar  grounds, 
except  in  a  few  cases  in  which  the  alleged  implements 
are  probably  not  artificial.  These  observations  not 
only  dispose,  for  the  present  at  least,  of  palaeolithic 
man  in  America,  but  they  suggest  the  propriety  of  a 
revision  of  the  whole  doctrine  of  '  palaeolithic '  and 
*  neolithic '  implements  as  held  in  Great  Britain  and 
elsewhere.  Such  distinctions  are  often  founded  on 
forms  which  may  quite  as  well  represent  merely  local 
or  temporary  exigencies,  or  the  debris  of  old  work- 
shops, as  any  difference  of  time  or  culture. 

For  the  present,  therefore,  we  may  afford  to  pass 
over  with  this  slight  notice  the  alleged  occurrence  of 
miocene  and  pliocene  man,  and  this  the  rather  since, 
if  such  men  ever  existed  in  the  northern  hemisphere, 
the  cold  and  submergence  of  the  pleistocene  must 
have  cut  them  off  from  their  more  modern  successors 
in  such  a  way  that  man  must  practically  have  made 
a  new  beginning  at  the  close  of  the  glacial  age. 

I  do  not  refer  here  to  the  finds  of  skulls  and 
implements  in  the  auriferous  gravels  of  Western 
America.  Some  of  these,  if  genuine,  might  go  back 
to  the  pliocene  age,  but  in  so  far  a.s  the  evidence  now 


THE  EARLIEST  TRACES  OF  MAN  35 

available  indicates,  they  all  belong  to  the  modern 
races  of  Indians,  and,  in  one  way  or  another,  by 
fraud  or  error,  have  had  assigned  to  them  a  fabulous 
antiquity. 

There  still  seems  reason  to  believe  that  remains 
of  man  and  his  works  exist  in  beds  which  are  over- 
laid by  boulders  and  gravel,  implying  a  cold  climate. 
These  may  indicate  the  last  portion  of  the  glacial 
period  proper,  in  which  case  the  beds  with  human 
remains  may  be  called  inter-glacial,  or  they  may 
indicate  a  partial  relapse  to  the  cold  conditions  occur- 
ring after  the  glacial  age  had  passed  away,  and  in 
the  early  part  of  the  modern  period.  My  own  view 
is,  that  it  is  most  natural  to  draw  the  boundary  line  of 
the  pleistocene  and  anthropic  or  modern  at  the  point 
where  the  earliest  certain  evidences  of  man  appear, 
and  that  the  anthropic  age  will  be  found  to  include 
not  only  an  early  period  of  mild  climate  succeeding 
the  glacial  age,  but  a  little  later  a  return  of  cold,  not 
comparable  with  that  of  the  extreme  glacial  period, 
but  sufficient  seriously  to  affect  human  interests,  and 
which  almost  immediately  preceded  those  physical 
changes  which  carried  away  palaeocosmic  man,  or  the 
man  of  the  earliest  period,  and  many  of  his  com- 
panion animals,  and  introduced  the  neanthropic  or 
later  human  age.  We  shall  find  facts  bearing  on  this 
in  the  sequel. 

In  the  meantime,  we  may  consider  it  as  established 
beyond  cavil  that  man  was  already  in  Europe  im- 
mediately after  the  close  of  the  glacial  pc:;V\1  r>-d 


36  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

was  contemporary  with  the  species  of  animals,  many 
of  them  large  and  formidable,  which  at  that  time 
occupied  the  land.  He  must  have  entered  on  the 
possession  of  a  world  more  ample  and  richer  in  re- 
sources than  that  which  remains  to  us.  The  early 
post-glacial  age  was,  like  the  preceding  pliocene,  a 
time  of  continental  elevation,  in  which  the  dry  land 
spread  itself  widely  over  the  now  submerged  margins 
of  the  sea  basins.  In  Europe,  the  British  Islands  were 
connected  with  the  mainland,  and  Ireland  was  united 
to  England.  The  Rhine  flowed  northward  to  the 
Orkneys,  through  a  wide  plain  probably  wooded  and 
swarming  with  great  quadrupeds,  now  extinct  or 
strange  to  Europe.  The  Thames  and  the  Humber 
were  tributaries  of  the  Rhine.  The  land  of  France 
and  Spain  extended  out  to  the  hundred-fathom  line. 
The  shallower  parts  of  the  Mediterranean  were  dry 
land,  and  that  sea  was  divided  into  two  parts  by  land 
connecting  Italy  with  Africa.  Possibly  portions  of 
the  shallower  areas  of  the  Atlantic  were  so  elevated 
as  to  connect  Europe  and  America  more  closely  than 
at  present. 

Connected  with  this  elevation  of  the  continents 
out  of  the  sea  was  a  great  change  of  climate,  whereby 
the  cold  of  the  pleistocene  age  passed  away  and  a 
milder  climate  overspread  the  northern  hemisphere, 
while  the  newly-raised  land  and  that  vacated  by  snow 
and  ice  became  clothed  with  vegetation,  and  were 
occupied  by  a  rich  quadrupedal  fauna,  including  even 
in  the  northern  parts  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  America, 


THE  EARLIEST  TRACES  OF  MAN          37 

species  of  elephant,  rhinoceros,  and  other  genera 
now  confined  to  the  warmer  climates.  This  new  and 
noble  world  was  the  rich  heritage  of  primeval  man. 

Pictet  has  estimated  the  number  of  species  of 
mammals  inhabiting  Europe  in  the  palanthropic 
period  at  ninety-eight,1  of  which  only  fifty-seven  now 
live  there,  the  remainder  being  either  wholly  or  locally 
extinct — that  is,  they  are  either  not  now  existing  in 
any  part  of  the  world,  or  are  found  only  beyond  the 
limits  of  Central,  Western,  and  Southern  Europe. 
The  extinct  species  also  include  the  largest  and 
noblest  of  all.  It  has  been  remarked  that  the 
assemblage  of  palanthropic  species  in  Europe  and 
Western  Asia  is  so  great  and  varied  that  with  our 
present  experience  we  can  scarcely  imagine  them 
to  have  existed  contemporaneously  in  the  same 
region.  For  example,  the  association  of  species  of 
elephant  and  rhinoceros,  the  musk-sheep,  the  reindeer, 
the  Cape  hyena,  and  the  hippopotamus  seems  to  be 
incongruous. 

Various  theories  have  been  proposed  to  remove 
the  difficulty.  Modern  analogies  will  allow  us  to 
believe  in  such  astounding  facts  if  we  take  into 
account  the  probability  of  a  warm  climate,  especially 
in  summer,  along  with  a  wooded  state  of  the  country 
providing  much  shelter,  and  wide  continental  plains 
affording  facilities  for  seasonal  migrations.  There 

1  Zittel,  in  a  recent  paper  (1893),  gives  no  species  of  mammals  in 
the  pleistocene  and  early  modern.  Of  these  about  twenty  of  the 
largest  and  most  important  are  extinct. 


38  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

were  no  doubt  also  climatal  changes  in  the  course  of 
the  age,  which  may  have  tended  to  the  remarkable 
mixture  of  animal  types  in  its  deposits.  In  connec- 
tion with  this  there  is  now  every  reason  to  believe  that 
while,  in  its  earlier  part,  the  palanthropic  age  was 
distinguished  by  a  warm  climate,  in  its  later  portion 
a  colder  and  more  inclement  atmosphere  crept  over 
the  northern  hemisphere.  As  an  illustration  of  this, 
it  is  known  that  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  period  a 
noble  species  of  elephant  named  Elephas  antiquus, 
and  a  rhinoceros  (R.  Merkii\  abounded  in  Europe ; 
but  as  the  age  advanced  these  species  disappeared, 
and  were  replaced  by  the  mammoth  (E.  primigenius) 
and  the  woolly  rhinoceros  (R.  tichorhinus\  animals 
clothed  like  the  musk-ox  in  dense  wool  and  hair,  and 
evidently  intended  for  a  rigorous  climate.  With  and 
succeeding  these  last  species,  the  reindeer  becomes 
characteristic  and  abundant.  It  is,  as  we  shall  see,  a 
point  of  much  importance  in  what  may  be  called  the 
prehistoric  history  of  man,  that  he  was  introduced  in 
a  period  of  genial  temperature  as  well  as  of  wide 
continental  extension,  and  survived  to  find  his  physi- 
cal environment  gradually  becoming  less  favourable, 
and  the  age  ending  in  that  great  cataclysm  which 
swept  so  many  species  of  animals  and  tribes  of 
men  out  of  existence,  and  reduced  the  dry  land  of 
our  continents  to  its  present  comparatively  limited 
area. 

I  should,  perhaps,  have  noticed  here  the  worked 
flints  found  so  abundantly  in  some  parts  of  the  south 


THE  EARLIEST  TRACES  OF  MAN  39 

of  England,  which  have  long  attracted  the  attention  of 
collectors,  and  have  in  some  cases  been  referred  to 
glacial  or  pre-glacial  times.  I  believe,  however,  they 
are  all  really  post-glacial,  though  in  some  cases  be- 
longing to  the  earliest  portion  of  that  period.1 

We  may  close  the  present  chapter  by  presenting 
to  the  eye  in  a  tabular  form  the  series  of  events 
included  in  the  pleistocene  and  modern  periods  of 
the  great  cenozoic  time. 

LATER   CENOZOIC,  OR  TERTIARY   PERIOD 

(In  Ascending  Order,  or  from  the  Older  to  the  Newer) 
NEWER  PLIOCENE.— A  continental  period  of  long  duration, 
elevated  land,  much  erosion,  much  volcanic  action. 

PLEISTOCENE. — Irregular  elevation  and  depression  of  the 
land,  ending  in  wide  submergence  with  cold  climate.  Glaciers 
on  all  mountains  near  to  coasts  and  ice-drift  over  submerged 
plains.  Glacial  period,  with  an  inter-glacial  mild  period  in  the 
middle  and  great  submergence  of  the  continents  toward  the 
close. 

ANTHROPIC. — Palanthropic,  or  post-glacial,  in  which  the 
land  emerges  and  attains  a  very  wide  extension,  and  is  inhabited 
by  a  varied  mammalian  fauna.  Man  appears  in  Europe,  Asia, 
and  North  Africa.  Terminated  by  a  recurrence  of  cold  and 
great  subsidence,  deluging  all  the  lower  lands.  Neanthropic. — 
Area  of  continents  smaller  than  in  the  previous  period.  Sur- 
viving races  of  men  and  species  of  animals  repeople  the 
world.  Modern  races  of  men  and  modern  animals. 

1  Prestwich  on  « Ightham  Beds,'  Journ.  GeoL  Soc.,  1893 ;  Daw- 
kins,  Journ.  Anthrop.  Soc.t  1894. 


40  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE   PALANTHROPIC  AGE1 

WE  have  now  to  inquire  more  particularly  what  we 
can  learn  as  to  the  earliest  men  known  to  us,  those 
who  appeared  in  Western  Asia  and  Europe  at  the 
close  of  the  glacial  period,  when  the  cold  had  passed 
away  and  a  genial  climate  had  succeeded,  and  when 
the  continents  of  the  northern  hemisphere  had  attained 
to  their  largest  dimensions,  were  clothed  with  a  rich 
vegetation  and  tenanted  by  an  abundant  mammalian 
fauna,  including  many  large  and  important  creatures 
now  extinct. 

We  may  first  notice  here  a  necessary  limitation  to 
our  knowledge.  The  dry  land  of  this  age  was  of 
greater  dimensions  than  at  present.  A  large  portion 
of  what  then  was  land  is  consequently  now  under  the 
sea  or  deeply  buried  in  alluvial  deposits.  Hence  if 
any  men  of  this  age  lived  near  the  borders  of  the 
ocean,  their  remains  must  now  be  inaccessible,  and 
the  relics  which  we  find  must  be  those  of  inland  tribes 

1  Called  by  some  '  Palaeolithic,*  from  the  use  of  implements  like 
hat  figured  on  p.  41. 


THE  PALANTHROPIC  AGE  41 

or  of  those  who  were  driven  inland  by  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  waters.  Our  means  of  information  are 
thus  limited,  and  we  must  be  prepared  to  admit  that 
there  may  have  been  in  this  age  great  and  populous 
communities  of  which  we  can  have  no  record,  at  least 


FLINT    HACHE    OF  .THE    ANCIENT    OR    CHELLEAN   TYPE,    AURILLAC 

(after  Carthaillac) 

of  a  geological  character.  Hence  if  we  should  find 
remains  of  only  rude  races  of  men,  we  should  not  be 
justified  in  assuming  that  all  the  peoples  of  the 
palanthropic  age  were  of  this  character,  more  espe- 
cially if  we  can  find  any  indications  that  the  men 


42  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

whose  remains  are  accessible  to  us,  though  rude 
themselves,  may  have  belonged  to  more  advanced 
races. 

The  bones,  implements  and  weapons,  and  debris 
of  the  feasts  of  these  primitive  peoples  are  to  be  found 
principally  in  caves  of  residence  or  of  sepulture,1  and 
in  the  alluvia  deposited  by  rivers,  and  in  a  few  cases 
in  rock  fissures  or  marine  gravels,  into  which  remains 
were  drifted,  or  in  which  they  were  deposited  by 
water.  Here,  again,  we  have  another  limitation,  for  it 
is  possible  that  large  populations  may  have  lived  on 
plains  or  in  forests  in  perishable  structures,  and,  like 
some  modern  savages,  may  have  disposed  of  their 
dead  in  such  a  way  that  their  bones  could  not  have 
been  preserved.  In  such  cases  we  can  hope  to  obtain, 
and  then  very  rarely,  only  stone  implements  and  other 
imperishable  relics. 

Notwithstanding  these  limitations,  however,  it  is 
wonderful  that  so  much  has  been  recovered  from  the 
ground  by  the  diligence  of  collectors,  and  that  the 
material  thus  obtained  has  proved  so  fertile  in  in- 
formation respecting  our  long-perished  ancestors. 

1  Caverns,  in  relation  to  this  subject,  may  be  divided  into  those  of 
residence,  in  which  early  men  have  lived  and  have  left  therein  the 
debris  of  their  food,  the  ashes  and  cinders  of  their  fires,  and  imple- 
ments, &c.  ;  those  of  sepulture,  in  which  the  bodies  of  the  dead  have 
been  deposited  ;  and  those  of  inundation,  into  which  the  bodies  of 
anim'als  or  men  have  been  drifted  by  floods.  The  same  cave  may, 
however,  exhibit  these  different  conditions  in  the  deposits  on  its  succes- 
sive floors.  Thus  men  may  have  inhabited  a  cave  for  a  time  ;  it  may 
next  have  been  invaded  by  river  floods  depositing  mud,  and  it  may 
subsequently  have  been  used  for  burial. 


THE  PALANTHROP1C  AGE  43 

Supposing,  then,  that  w£  search  for  remains  of 
palaeocosmic  men  in  river  alluvia,  or  in  caves  of 
residence  or  burial,  or  in  similar  repositories,  the 
question  next  arises,  by  what  means  can  we  distinguish 
their  bones  from  those  of  later  times?  The  following 
criteria  are  available  : 

(1)  The  remains  were  in  their  present  condition 
at  least  as  long  ago  as  the  date  of  the  earliest  history 
or  tradition.     This  evidence  is  of  course  of  greatest 
value   in   those   regions    in    which   history   extends 
farthest  back.     Thus  the  remains  of  early  men  in  the 
Lebanon  caves,  which  we  know  date  much  farther 
back  than    the   arrival   of  the  first  Phoenicians  and 
Canaanites  in  Syria,  are  in  a  different  position,  in  so 
far  as  history  is  concerned,  from  those  occurring  in 
countries  whose  written  history  goes  back  only  a  few 
centuries. 

(2)  The  deposits   containing  these  remains  may 
underlie  those  holding  relics  of  historic  times,  or  may 
indicate  different  physical  conditions  of  the  districts 
in  which  they  occur  from  those  known  within  historic 
periods.     This  is  the  case  with  some  river  beds,  as 
those  of  Crenelle,  near  Paris,  and  with  the  successive 
deposits  in  old  caves  of  residence. 

(3)  They   may  be   accompanied   by  remains   of 
animals  now  extinct  in  the  regions  in  question,  and 
whose  disappearance  and  replacement  by  the  modern 
fauna  implies  great  lapse  of  time  and  physical  changes; 
as,  for  instance,  when  we  find  that  men  have  left  re- 
mains of  their  feasts  holding  bones  of  the  extinct 


44  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

woolly  rhinoceros  and  his  contemporaries,  or  in  now 
temperate  climates,  those  of  the  reindeer. 

(4)  The  remains  themselves  may  indicate  a  race 
or  races  of  men  and  a  condition  of  the  arts  of  life" 
different  from  any  known  in  the  region  in  historic 
times,  Thus  we  may  have  skulls  and  skeletons 
indicating  men  racially  distinct  from  any  now  extant, 
and  implements  and  weapons  different  from  those  in 
use  in  the  times  of  history  or  tradition. 

We  have  now  to  consider  what  evidence  of  this 
kind  vindicates  the  assertion  that  man  existed  on  our 
continents  in  the  second  continental  or  post-glacial 
age,  or, -as  others  will  have  it,  in  the  closing  period  01 
the  glacial  age,  and  was  contemporary  with  the 
mammoth  and  other  great  beasts  now  extinct.  This 
evidence,  which  has  been  accumulating  with  great 
rapidity  and  relates  to  many  parts  of  the  northern 
hemisphere,  is  too  voluminous  to  be  reproduced  here.1 
But  a  few  examples  of  it  may  be  given,  more  especially 
from  parts  of  the  old  world  whose  history  extends 
farthest  back  and  where  explorations  have  been  most 
extensive. 

My  first  instance  shall  be  one  originally  described 
by  Canon  Tristram,  and  which  I  had  an  opportunity 
to  examine  in  1884 — the  caverns  or  rock  shelters  in 
the  face  of  the  limestone  cliff  of  the  pass  of  Nahr-el- 

1  Reference  may  be  made  to  Christy  and  Lartet,  Reliquiae  Aqui- 
tanica  ;  Quatrefages,  Homme  Fossile  ;  Dupont,  UHomme  pendant 
les  Ages  de  Pierre  ;  Catthaillac,  La  France  Prehistorique  ;  Dawkins, 
Cave  Hunting  and  Early  Man  in  Britain ;  Fossil  Men  and  Modern 
Science  in  Bible  Lands,  by  the  author. 


THE  PALANTHROPIC  AGE  45 

Kelb,  north  of  Beyrout  At  this  place,  in  old  caverns 
partly  cut  away  in  the  forming  of  the  Roman  road 
round  the  cliff,  there  is  a  hard  stalagmite,  or  modern 
limestone,  produced  by  the  calcareous  drippings  from 
the  rock.  This  is  filled  with  broken  bones  inter- 
mixed with  flint  flakes  suitable  for  use  as  knives  or 
spears  or  darts,  and  occasional  fragments  of  charcoal. 
The  bones  are  those  of  large  animals,  and  have  been 
broken  for  the  extraction  of  the  marrow  ;  and  the 
whole  is  evidently  the  remnants  of  the  cuisine  of 
some  primitive  tribe  of  hunters,  now  cemented  into 
a  somewhat  hard  stone  by  stalagmitic  matter.  The 
bones  are  not  those  of  the  present  animals  of  Syria, 
but  principally  of  an  extinct  species  of  rhinoceros 
(R.  tichorhinus),  a  species  of  bison,  and  other  large 
mammals  which  inhabited  the  region  in  the  pleistocene 
and  post-glacial  periods.  It  is  farther  known  that 
these  animals  had  been  extinct  long  before  the  early 
Phoenicians  penetrated  into  this  country,  perhaps 
3000  B.C.,  and  that  the  deposits  existed  in  their 
present  state  when  the  early  Egyptian  conquerors 
passed  this  way,  at  least  1 500  B.C.,  on  their  march 
to  encounter  the  Hittites.  It  is  also  known  that 
the  earliest  historic  aborigines  of  the  Lebanon,  cer- 
tain rude  tribes  which  seem  to  have  existed  there 
before  the  migration  of  the  Phoenicians,  subsisted  on 
the  modern  animals  of  the  district,  and  used  flint 
implements  and  weapons  somewhat  differing  from 
those  of  the  earlier  cave  men  of  the  region.1  What, 

1  See  the  illustration  on  p.  97. 


46  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

then,  were  these  earlier  cave  men  ?  Certainly  no 
people  known  to  history,  unless  those  whom  we  know 
as  antediluvians.1 

From  the  Lebanon  we  may  pass  to  the  west  of 
Europe,  where  in  France  and  Belgium  a  vast  number 
of  interesting  relics  of  palseocosmic  man  have  been 
discovered,  and  have  been  scientifically  examined. 

We  may  take  as  an  illustration  the  cave  of  Goyet, 
on  the  cliffs  bounding  the  ravine  of  the  Samson,  a 
tributary  of  the  Meuse.  This  cavern  is  about  forty- 
five  feet  above  the  present  ordinary  level  of  the  river, 
but  in  post-glacial  times  seems  to  have  been  invaded 
by  inundations,  as  it  shows  on  its  floor  five  distinct 
ossiferous  surfaces,  separated  by  layers  of  river-mud. 
These  successive  surfaces  have  been  carefully  ex- 
amined by  M.  Dupont,  and  their  contents  noted. 

On  the  lowest  of  these,  or  the  first  in  order  of  age, 
were  found  numerous  skeletons  and  detached  bones 
of  the  cave  lion  and  the  cave  bear ;  the  former  a 
possible  ancestor  of  the  lion  of  Western  Asia,  the 
latter  closely  allied  to  the  grizzly  bear  of  North 
America,  but  both  entirely  extinct  in  Europe.  One 
of  the  skeletons  of  the  lion  was  of  unusually  large 
size,  and  so  complete  that  when  set  up  it  forms  the 
principal  ornament  of  the  cave  collection  in  the 
Brussels  Museum. 

The  next  surface,  the  second  in  order  of  time,  had 

1  For  more  detailed  description  see  Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands  \ 
also  Egypt  and  Syria,  in  the  Bypaths  of  Bible  Knowledge^  by  the 
author. 


THE  PALANTHROPIC  AGE 


47 


a  greater  variety  of  animal  remains.  The  lion  had 
disappeared,  and  instead  hyenas  haunted  the  cave, 
and  had  dragged  in  animal  bones  to  be  gnawed. 
These  included  remains  of  the  cave  bear,  wolf, 
rhinoceros,  mammoth,  wild  horse,  wapiti,  Irish  stag, 
chamois,  reindeer,  wild  ox,  besides  several  smaller 


CAVE  OF  GOYET,  BELGIUM  (section  after  Dupont) 
i  to  5,  layers  of  clay  deposited  in  the  mammoth  ages 

anima-ls.  The  above  animals  are  now  all  unknown 
in  the  fauna  of  modern  Europe,  except  the  reindeer, 
the  chamois,  and  the  wolf.  But  the  most  remarkable 
discovery  on  this  surface  was  that  of  a  few  human 
bones,  gnawed  like  the  others  by  the  hyenas.  Man 
was  thus  already  in  the  country,  and  contemporary 


48  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

with  all  these  animals.  How  the  hyena  obtained  his 
bones,  whether  from  some  neglected  corpse  or  from 
some  badly-constructed  grave,  will  never  be  known  ; 
but  the  discovery  introduces  us  to  a  tribe  or  family 
of  men  coming  as  immigrants  into  a  region  already 
stocked  with  many  great  quadrupeds.  They  probably 
did  not  yet  dwell  in  caves,  which,  at  a  later  and 
perhaps  more  inclement  period,  formed  their  homes. 
Dupont  concludes  from  the  condition  of  the  bones 
that  on  both  the  older  surfaces  the  cave  bear  was 
the  later  tenant,  and  had  replaced  the  lion  on  the  first 
and  the  hyena  on  the  second. 

The  remaining  surfaces  introduce  us  to  man  as  a 
cave-dweller.  On  the  oldest  of  them  are  found  not 
only  abundance  of  debris  of  food,  but  worked  flints 
and  bones,  objects  of  ornament,  and  evidences  of  the 
use  of  fire.  The  two  higher  layers  show  works  of 
art  in  more  varied  and  improved  forms,  as  if  a 
certain  progress  in  the  arts  of  life  had  taken  place 
during  the  occupancy  of  the  cave.  Among  the 
objects  in  the  upper  layers  were  red  oxide  of  iron, 
showing  the  use  of  colouring  matter  for  the  skin  or 
garments,  bone  needles,  proving  the  manufacture  of 
clothing  by  sewing,  bone  points  for  darts,  skilfully- 
barbed  bone  harpoons,  ornaments  made  of  perforated 
teeth  of  animals,  and  fragments  of  bone,  and  a 
remarkable  necklace  of  a  hundred  and  twenty-four 
silicified  shells  of  the  genus  Turritella,  looking  like 
spirals  of  agate,  with  a  pendant  made  of  another  and 
larger  shell.  These  shells  are  not  known  to  occur 


THE  PALANTHROPIC  AGE 


49 


nearer  to  the  cave  than  Rheims,  in  Champagne.  It 
is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  this  necklace 
might  be  worn  by  any  lady  of  the  present  day.  A 
certain  amount  of  imitative  art  is  also  shown  in  the 
carving  of  animal  and  plant  forms  and  fancy  devices 


LANCE-HEAD   FORMED   OF   A   FLINT   FLAKE    (CAVE   OF   MOUSTIER.) 

Similar  to  weapons  found  in  the  Goyet  cave.      The  flat  face 

shows  a  bulb  of  percussion  (after  Falsan) 

on  pieces  of  reindeer  antler,  which  may  have  served 
for  handles  of  weapons  or  implements.  But  objects 
of  much  more  elaborate  design  have  been  found  in 
caverns  of  this  age  in  France.  (See  illustrations  on 
pp.  59  and  68.) 

The  food  of  these  people,  in  so  far  as  it  was  of  an 


50  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

animal  nature,  may  be  learned  from  the  broken  bones, 
which  show  that  here  as  elsewhere  they  carried  into 
their  caves  only  the  legs  and  skulls  of  the  larger 
animals  they  killed,  leaving  the  carcases  ;  though  it  is 
quite  possible  that,  like  North  American  hunting 
Indians,  they  may  have  stripped  off  portions  of  flesh 
from  the  back, and  preserved  the  heart,  liver,  &c.,  which 
would  of  course  leave  no  remains. 

Dupont  gives  lists  of  the  animals  in  each  layer. 
Those  in  the  lower  of  the  anthropic  layers  consist  of 
twenty-three  species  of  quadrupeds  and  some  bones 
of  birds.  Among  the  former  were  the  mammoth,  the 
rhinoceros,  two  species  of  bear,  the  horse,  the  rein- 
deer, two  other  species  of  deer  and  two  bovine 
animals.  Even  the  lion,  the  hyena  and  the  wolf 
were  eaten  by  these  people.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  the  numerical  preponderance  was  in  favour  of 
the  reindeer  and  the  wild  horse,  though  remains 
were  found  indicating  seven  individuals  of  the  mam- 
moth, and  four  of  the  rhinoceros,  as  having  fallen 
a  prey  to  the  old  hunters.  In  the  highest  bed  the 
number  of  species  and  the  proportions  of  each  one 
are  nearly  the  same,  so  that  no  material  change  in 
the  fauna  had  occurred  during  the  occupancy  of  this 
cave.  It  may  also  be  noted  that  while  Dupont  calls 
this  a  cave  of  the  mammoth  age,  the  French  arch- 
aeologists are  in  the  habit  of  naming  similar  deposits 
those  of  the  reindeer  age.  The  age  of  both  animals 
was  in  reality  the  same,  except  that  in  France  the 
reindeer  seems  to  have  survived  the  mammoth,  and 


THE  PALANTHROPIC   AGE  51 

indeed  we  know  this  to  be  the  fact  from  its  continuing 
in  the  forests  of  Germany  till  the  Roman  times. 

This  cave  may  serve  as  an  example  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  men  of  the  palanthropic  age  make  their 
appearance.  Let  it  be  observed  also  that  this  is  only 
one  instance  selected  from  many  giving  similar  tes- 
timony, and  that  Dupont  adduces  evidence  to  show 
that  there  may  have  been  a  contemporary  plain- 
dwelling  people,  of  whom  less  is  known  than  of  the 
troglodytes.  Let  it  also  be  noted  that  there  are  other 
caves  in  Belgium,  to  which  we  shall  return  later,  which 
show  how  the  neocosmic  men  contemporary  with  the 
present  fauna  succeeded  the  men  of  the  mammoth 
age. 

We  may  now  inquire  as  to  the  physical  characters 
of  the  men  of  this  period.  It  may  be  stated  in 
answer  to  this  question  that  two  races  of  men  are 
known  in  the  palanthropic  age,  both  somewhat 
different  from  any  existing  peoples,  and  known  re- 
spectively as  the  Canstadt  and  Cro-magnon  races. 
As  the  latter  is  the  most  important  and  best  known, 
we  may  take  it  first,  though  the  former  may  locally 
at  least  have  been  the  older. 

The  valley  of  the  little  river  Vezere,  a  tributary  of 
the  Dordogne,  in  the  south  of  France,  abounding  in 
overhanging  rock-shelters,  seems  to  have  been  a 
favourite  abode  of  the  men  of  the  mammoth  and 
reindeer  age.  The  rock-shelter  of  Cro-magnon  ex- 
plored by  Lartet  is  one  of  these,  and  that  of  Laugerie 
Basse  is  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  same  stream. 

D  2 


52  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

The  former  is  a  shelter  or  hollow  under  an  over- 
hanging ledge  of  limestone,  and  excavated  originally 
by  the  action  of  .the  weather  on  a  softer  bed.  It 
fronts  the  south-west,  and,  having  originally  been 
about  eight  feet  high  and  nearly  twenty  deep,  must 
have  formed  a  comfortable  shelter  from  rain  or  cold 
or  summer  sun,  and  with  a  pleasant  outlook  from  its 
front.  Being  nearly  fifty  feet  wide,  it  was  capacious 
enough  to  accommodate  several  families,  and  when 
in  use  it  no  doubt  had  trees  or  shrubs  in  front,  and 
may  have  been  further  completed  by  stones,  poles,  or 
bark  placed  across  the  opening.  It  seems,  however, 
in  the  first  instance  to  have  been  used  only  at 
intervals,  and  to  have  been  left  vacant  for  consider- 
able portions  of  time.  Perhaps  it  was  visited  only  by 
hunting  or  war-parties.  But  subsequently  it  was  per- 
manently occupied,  and  this  for  so  long  a  time  that 
in  some  places  a  foot  and  a  half  of  ashes  and  carbon- 
aceous matter,  with  bones,  implements,  &c.,  was 
accumulated.  All  of  these,  it  may  be  remarked, 
belong  to  the  palanthropic  age.  By  this  time  the 
height  of  the  cavern  had  been  much  diminished,  and, 
instead  of  clearing  it  out  for  future  use,  it  was  made 
a  place  of  burial,  in  which  five  individuals  were 
interred.  Of  these,  three  were  men,  one  of  great  age, 
the  other  two  probably  in  the  prime  of  life.  The 
fourth  and  fifth  were  a  woman  of  about  thirty  or 
forty  years  of  age,  and  the  remains  of  a  foetus. 

These  bones,  with  others  to  be  mentioned  in  con- 
nection with  them,  unquestionably  belong  to  some  of 


THE  PALANTHROPIC  AGE  53 

the  oldest  human  inhabitants  known  in  Western 
Europe.  They  have  been  most  carefully  examined 
by  several  competent  anatomists  and  archaeologists, 
and  the  results  have  been  published  with  excellent 
figures  in  the  Reltquia  Aquitanictz,  where  will  also  be 
found  details  of  their  characters  and  accompaniments, 
among  which  last  were  about  three  hundred  small 
shells  of  different  species  pierced  for  stringing  or  attach- 
ment to  garments.  These  men  are,  therefore,  of  the 
utmost  interest  for  our  present  purpose,  and  I  shall 
try  so  to  divest  the  descriptions  of  anatomical  details 
as  to  give  a  clear  notion  of  their  character.  The 
doubts  at  one  time  cast  on  the  age  of  these  skeletons 
have  been  removed  by  the  discovery  of  others  at 
Laugerie  Basse,  Mentone,  &c.  They  are  no  doubt 
palanthropic,  though  not  of  the  earliest  part  of  the 
period.  The  '  Old  Man  of  Cro-magnon '  was  of 
great  stature,  being  nearly  six  feet  high.  More  than 
this,  his  bones  show  that  he  was  of  the  strongest  and 
most  athletic  muscular  development ;  and  the  bones 
of  the  limbs  have  the  peculiar  form  which  is  charac- 
teristic of  athletic  men  habituated  to  rough  walking, 
climbing,  and  running  ;  for  this  is,  I  believe,  the  real 
meaning  of  the  enormous  strength  of  the  thigh-bone 
and  the  flattened  condition  of  the  leg  in  this  and 
other  old  skeletons.  It  occurs  to  some  extent, 
though  much  less  than  in  this  old  man,  in  American 
skeletons.  His  skull  presents  all  the  characters  of 
advanced  age,  though  the  teeth  had  been  worn  down 
to  the  sockets  without  being  lost ;  which,  again,  is  a 


54  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

character  often  observed  in  rude  peoples  of  modern 
times.  The  skull  proper,  or  brain-case,  is  very  long 
—more  so  than  in  ordinary  modern  skulls — and  this 
length  is  accompanied  with  a  great  breadth  ;  so  that 
the  brain  was  of  greater  size  than  in  average  modern 
men,  and  the  frontal  region  was  largely  and  well 


OUTLINE  OF   THE   SKULL  OF   THE    '  OLD   MAN    OF  CRO-MAGNON  ' 

(after  Christy  and  Lartet) 

developed.  The  face,  however,  presented  very  pecu- 
liar characters.  It  was  extremely  broad,  with  project- 
ing cheek-bones  and  heavy  jaw,  in  this  resembling 
the  coarse  types  of  the  American  face,  and  the 
eye-orbits  were  square  and  elongated  laterally  in 
a  manner  peculiar  to  the  skulls  of  this  age.  The 
nose  was  large  and  prominent,  and  the  jaws  projected 
somewhat  forward.  This  man,  therefore,  had,  as  to 


THE  PALANTHROP1C  AGE  55 

his  features,  some  resemblance  to  the  harsher  type  of 
American  physiognomy,  with  overhanging  brows, 
small  and  transverse  eyes,  high  cheek-bones,  and 
coarse  mouth.  He  had  not  lived  to  so  great  an  age 
without  some  rubs,  for  his  thigh-bone  showed  a  de- 
pression which  must  have  resulted  from  a  severe 
wound — perhaps  from  the  horn  of  some  wild  animal 
or  the  spear  of  an  enemy. 

The  woman  presented  similar  characters  of  stature 
and  cranial  form  modified  by  her  sex,  and  in  form 
and  visage  closely  resembled  her  sisters  of  the 
American  wilderness  in  the  pre-Columbian  times. 
If  her  hair  and  complexion  were  suitable,  she  would 
have  passed  at  once  for  an  American-Indian  woman, 
but  one  of  unusual  size  and  development.  Her  head 
bears  sad  testimony  to  the  violence  of  her  age  and 
people.  She  died  from  the  effects  of  a  blow  from  a 
stone-headed  pogamogan  or  spear,  which  has  pene- 
trated the  right  side  of  the  forehead  with  so  clean  a 
fracture  as  to  indicate  the  extreme  rapidity  and  force 
of  its  blow.  It  is  inferred  from  the  condition  of  the 
edges  of  this  wound  that  she  may  have  survived  its 
infliction  for  two  weeks  or  more.  If,  as  is  most 
likely,  the  wound  was  received  in  some  sudden 
attack  by  a  hostile  tribe,  they  must  have  been  driven 
off  or  have  retired,  leaving  the  wounded  woman  in 
the  hands  of  her  friends  to  be  tended  for  a  time, 
and  then  buried,  either  with  other  members  of  her 
family  or  with  others  who  had  perished  in  the  same 
skirmish.  Unless  the  wound  was  inflicted  in  sleep, 


56  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

during  a  night  attack,  she  must  have  fallen,  not  in 
flight,  but  with  her  face  to  the  foe,  perhaps  aiding  the 
resistance  of  her  friends  or  shielding  her  little  ones 
from  destruction.  With  the  people  of  Cro-magnon, 
as  with  the  American  Indians,  the  care  of  the 
wounded  was  probably  a  sacred  duty,  not  to  be 
neglected  without  incurring  the  greatest  disgrace 
and  the  vengeance  of  the  guardian  spirits  of  the 
sufferers. 

Unreasonable  doubts  have  been  cast  on  the  burial 
of  the  dead  by  palseocosmic  men.  The  burial  of  men 
of  the  Cro-magnon  race  at  that  place  and  at  Laugerie 
Basse  and  Mentone  is  established  by  the  most  un- 
equivocal evidence  ;  and  interments  of  men  of  the 
Canstadt  race  have  been  found  at  Spy,  in  Belgium. 
Of  course,  even  if  interment  proper  had  not  been 
practised,  there  might  have  been  cremation,  as 
among  the  Tasmanians,  or  burial  on  stages  or  in 
huts,  as  among  some  American  Indians.  Still,  that 
interment  was  practised  we  know,  and  this  carries 
with  it  the  certainty  that  our  palaeocosmic  men  must 
have  had  some  simple  ideas  of  religion. 

The  skulls  of  these  people  have  been  compared  to 
those  of  the  modern  Esthonians  or  Lithuanians  ;  but 
on  the  authority  of  M.  Quatrefages  it  is  stated  that, 
while  this  applies  to  the  probably  later  race  of  smaller 
men  found  in  some  of  the  Belgian  caves,  it  does  not 
apply  so  well  to  the  people  of  Cro-magnon.  Are, 
then,  these  people  the  types  of  any  ancient,  or  of  the 
most  ancient,  European  race  ?  The  answer  is  that 


THE  FIRST   SKELETON    FOUND   IN    THE    MENTONE  CAVES 

(after  Riviere) 


58  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

they  are  types  of  the  cave  men  of  the  mammoth 
age  in  Europe.  Another  example  is  the  remarkable 
skeleton  of  Mentone,  in  the  south  of  France,  found 
under  circumstances  equally  suggestive  of  great  anti- 
quity. Dr.  Riviere,  in  a  memoir  on  this  skeleton, 
illustrated  by  two  beautiful  photographs,  shows  that 
the  characters  of  the  skull  and  of  the  bones  of  the 
limbs  are  similar  to  those  of  the  Cro-magnon  skeleton, 
indicating  a  perfect  identity  of  race,  while  the  objects 
found  with  the  skeleton  are  similar  in  character. 
I  had  an  opportunity  of  verifying  his  description  by 
an  examination  of  the  skeleton  in  the  Museum  of  the 
Jardin  des  Plantes,  in  1883  ;  and  more  jecent  dis- 
coveries at  Mentone  have  confirmed  the  conclusion 
that  this  man  really  represents  a  race  of  giants,  some 
of  them  seven  feet  high,  who  inhabited  Southern 
Europe  in  the  palanthropic  age.  A  similar  skeleton 
found  by  Carthaillac,  at  Laugerie  Basse,  was  buried 
under  a  great  thickness  of  accumulated  debris  of 
cookery,  as  well  as  of  large  stones  fallen  from  above. 
This  skeleton  had  its  shell  ornaments  in  place  on  the 
forehead,  arms,  legs  and  feet,  in  a  manner  which 
would  induce  the  belief  that  they  had  been  attached 
to  a  head-dress,  sleeves,  leggings,  and  shoes  or  mo- 
casins.  (See  illustration  on  p.  79.) 

The  ornaments  of  Cro-magnon  were  perforated 
shells  from  the  Atlantic  and  pieces  of  ivory.  Those 
at  Mentone  were  perforated  Neritince  from  the  Medi- 
terranean and  canine  teeth  of  the  deer.  In  both 
cases  there  was  evidence  that  these  ancient  people 


60  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

painted  themselves  with  red  oxide  of  iron,  and  used 
bodkins  of  bone,  and  long  and  beautifully-formed 
flint  knives,  perhaps  for  dividing  their  food,  or  perhaps 
for  sacrificial  purposes.  Skulls  found  at  Clichy  and 
Crenelle  in  1868  and  1869  are  described  by  Professor 
Broca  and  M.  Fleurens  as  of  the  same  general  type, 
and  the  remains  found  at  Gibraltar  and  in  the  cave 
of  Paviland,  in  England,  seem  also  to  have  belonged 
to  this  race.  The  celebrated  Engis  skull  from  one  of 


NEANDERTHAL  SKOLL-TVVO   OUTLI.NES  :   THE  OUTER 

GIVING  THE  MORE  CORRECT  FORM  (from  Science) 


the  Belgian  caves,  which  is  believed  to  have  belonged 
to  a  contemporary  of  the  mammoth,  is  also  of  this 
type,  though  less  massive  than  that  of  Cro-magnon  ; 
and  lastly,  even  the  somewhat  degraded  Neanderthal 
skull,  found  in  a  cave  near  Diisseldorf,  though,  like 
those  of  Clichy,  Canstadt,  Spy  and  Gibraltar,  inferior 
in  frontal  development,  is  referable  to  the  same  pe- 
culiar long-headed  style  of  man,  in  so  far  as  can  be 
judged  from  the  portion  that  remains,  though  cer- 
tainly to  a  ruder  and  more  degraded  variety,  com- 


THE  PALANTHROPIC  AGE  61 

monly  known  as  the  Canstadt  man  as  distinguished 
from  the  Engis  or  Cro-magnon. 

Let  it  be  observed,  then,  that  these  skulls  are 
probably  the  oldest  known  in  the  world,  and  they  are 
all  referable  to  two  varieties  of  one  race  of  men  ;  and 
let  us  ask  what  they  tell  as  to  the  position  and 
character  of  palanthropic  man.  The  testimony  is 
here  fortunately  well-nigh  unanimous.  All  anatomists 


SKULL  OF  CANSTADT  TYPE  FOUND  AT  SPY,  BELGIUM, 
BY  FRAIPONT  AND  LOHEST 


and  archaeologists  admit  the  high  and  human  cha- 
racter of  the  Engis  and  even  the  Neanderthal  skulls. 
Broca,  who  has  carefully  studied  the  Cro-magnon 
skulls,  has  the  following  general  conclusions  :  *  The 
great  volume  of  the  brain,  the  development  of 
the  frontal  region,  the  fine  elliptical  profile  of 
the  anterior  portion  of  the  skull,  and  the  orthogna- 
thous  form  of  the  upper  facial  region,  are  incontest- 
ably  evidences  of  superiority,  which  are  met  with 
usually  only  in  the  civilised  races.  On  the  other 


62  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

hand,  the  great  breadth  of  face,  the  alveolar  progna- 
thism,  the  enormous  development  of  the  ascending 
ramus  of  the  lower  jaw,  the  extent  and  roughness  of 
the  muscular  insertions,  especially  of  the  masticatory 
muscles,  give  rise  to  the  idea  of  a  violent  and  brutal 
race/ 

He  adds  that  this  apparent  antithesis,  seen  also 
in  the  limbs  as  well  as  in  the  skull,  accords  with  the 
evidence  furnished  by  the  associated  weapons  and 
implements  of  a  rude  hunter-life,  and  at  the  same 
time  of  no  mean  degree  of  taste  and  skill  in  carving 
and  other  arts.  He  might  have  added  that  this  is 
the  antithesis  seen  in  the  American  tribes,  among 
whom  art  and  taste  of  various  kinds,  and  much  that 
is  high  and  spiritual  even  in  thought,  coexisted  with 
barbarous  modes  of  life  and  intense  ferocity  and 
cruelty.  The  god  and  the  devil  were  combined  in 
these  races,  but  there  was  nothing  of  the  mere 
brute. 

Riviere  remarks,  with  expressions  of  surprise,  the 
same  contradictory  points  in  the  Mentone  skeleton  : 
its  grand  development  of  brain-case  and  high  facial 
angle — even  higher  apparently  than  in  most  of 
these  ancient  skulls — combined  with  other  characters 
which  indicate  a  low  type  and  barbarous  modes  of 
life. 

Another  point  which  strikes  us  in  reading  the 
descriptions  of  these  skeletons  is  the  indication 
which  they  seem  to  present  of  an  extreme  longevity. 
The  massive  proportions  of  the  body,  the  great 


THE  PALANJHROPIC  AGE  63 

development  of  the  muscular  processes,  the  extreme 
wearing  of  the  teeth  among  a  people  who  pre- 
dominantly lived  on  flesh  and  not  on  grain,  the 
obliteration  of  the  sutures  of  the  skull,  along  with 
indications  of  slow  ossification  of  the  ends  of  the  long 
bones,  point  in  this  direction,  and  seem  to  indicate  a 
slow  maturity  and  great  length  of  life  in  this  most 
primitive  race. 

The  picture  would  be  incomplete  did  we  not  add 
that  Quatrefages  has  described  a  single  skull,  that  of 
Truchere,  from  deposits  of  this  age,  which  shows 
that  these  gigantic  men  were  contemporaneous  with 
a  feebler  race  of  smaller  stature  and  with  different 
cranial  characters,  and  inhabiting  in  all  likelihood  a 
more  eastern  region. 

It  is  further  significant  that  there  is  evidence  to 
show  that  the  larger  and  stronger  race  was  that  which 
prevailed  in  Europe  at  the  time  of  its  greatest  elevation 
above  the  sea  and  greatest  horizontal  extent,  and 
when  its  fauna  included  many  large  quadrupeds  now 
extinct.  This  race  of  giants  was  thus  in  the  posses- 
sion of  a  greater  continental  area  than  that  now 
existing,  and  had  to  contend  with  gigantic  brute 
rivals  for  the  possession  of  the  world.  It  is  also  not 
improbable  that  this  early  race  became  extinct  in 
Europe  in  consequence  of  the  physical  changes  which 
occurred  in  connection  with  the  subsidence  that 
reduced  the  land  to  its  present  limits,  and  that  the 
feebler  race  which  succeeded  came  in  as  the  appro- 
priate accompaniment  of  a  diminished  land-surface 


64  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

and  a  less  genial  climate  in  the  early  historic  period. 
The  older  races  are  those  usually  classed  as  palaeolithic, 
and  are  supposed  to  antedate  the  period  of  polished 
stone ;  but  this  may,  to  some  extent,  be  a  prejudice 
of  collectors,  who  have  arrived  at  a  foregone  conclu- 
sion as  to  distinctions  of  this  kind.  Judging  from 
the  great  cranial  capacity  of  the  older  race  and  the 
small  number  of  their  skeletons  found,  it  might  be  fair 
to  suppose  that  they  represent  rude  outlying  tribes 
belonging  to  nations  which  elsewhere  had  attained 
to  greater  population  and  culture. 

Lastly,  all  of  these  old  European  races  were 
Turanian,  Mongolian,  or  American  in  their  head-forms 
and  features,  as  well  as  in  their  habits,  implements, 
and  arts.  In  other  words,  their  nearest  affinities  were 
with  races  of  men  which  in  the  modern  world  are  the 
oldest  and  most  widely  distributed. 

The  reader,  reflecting  on  what  he  has  learned 
from  history,  may  be  disposed  here  to  ask,  Must 
we  suppose  Adam  to  have  been  one  of  these 
Turanian  men,  like  the '  Old  Man  of  Cro-magnon '  ?  In 
answer,  I  would  say  that  there  is  no  good  reason  to 
regard  the  first  man  as  having  resembled  a  Greek 
Apollo  or  an  Adonis.  He  was  probably  of  sterner 
and  more  muscular  mould.  But  he  was  probably 
more  akin  to  the  more  delicate  and  refined  race 
represented  by  the  solitary  skull  of  Truchere,  while 
the  gigantic  palaeocosmic  men  of  the  European  caves 
are  more  likely  to  have  been  representatives  of 
that  terrible  and  powerful  race  who  filled  the  ante- 


THE  PALANTHROP1C  AGE  65 

diluvian  world  with  violence,  and  who  reappear  in 
postdiluvian  times  as  the  Anakim  and  traditional 
giants,  who  constitute  a  feature  in  the  early  history  of 
so  many  countries.  Perhaps  nothing  is  more  curious 
in  the  revelations  as  to  the  most  ancient  cave  men 
than  that  they  confirm  the  old  belief  that  there  were 
'giants  in  those  days.'  At  the  same  time  we  must 
bear  in  mind  that  the  more  diminutive  race  which 
survived  must  have  existed  previously  in  some  part  of 
the  world,  and  must  have  furnished  the  survivors  of 
the  succeeding  subsidence  (see  illustration  on  p.  82). 

And  now  let  us  pause  for  a  moment  to  picture 
these  so-called  palaeolithic  men.  What  could  the  '  Old 
Man  of  Cro-magnon  '  have  told  us,  had  we  been  able 
to  sit  by  his  hearth  and  listen  understandingly  to  his 
speech  ? — which,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  form  of 
his  palate-bones,  must  have  resembled  more  that  of 
the  Americans  or  Mongolians  than  of  any  modern 
European  people.  He  had,  no  doubt,  travelled  far, 
for  to  his  stalwart  limbs  a  long  journey  through 
forests  and  over  plains  and  mountains  would  be  a 
mere  pastime.  He  may  have  bestridden  the  wild 
horse,  which  seems  to  have  abounded  at  the  time  in 
France,  and  he  may  have  launched  his  canoe  on  the 
waters  of  the  Atlantic.  His  experience  and  memory 
might  extend  back  a  century  or  more,  and  his  tradi- 
tional lore  might  go  back  to  the  times  of  the  first 
mother  of  our  race.  Did  he  live  in  that  wide  post- 
pliocene  continent  which  extended  westward  through 
Ireland  ?  Did  he  know  and  had  he  visited  the  more 

£ 


66  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

cultuerd  naitons  that  lived  in  the  great  plains  of  the 
Mediterranean  Valley-,  or  on  that  nameless  river  which 
flowed  through  the  land  now  covered  by  the  German 
Ocean  ?  Had  he  visited  or  seen  from  afar  the  great 
island  Atlantis,  whose  inhabitants  could  almost  see 
in  the  sunset  sky  the  islands  of  the  blest  ?  Could  he 
have  told  us  of  the  huge  animals  of  the  antediluvian 
world,  and  of  the  feats  of  the  men  of  renown  who 
contended  with  these  animal  giants  ?  We  can  but 
conjecture  all  this.  But,  mute  though  they  may  be 
as  to  the  details  of  their  lives,  the  man  of  Cro-magnon 
and  his  contemporaries  are  eloquent  of  one  great 
truth,  in  which  they  coincide  with  the  Americans  and 
with  the  primitive  men  of  all  the  early  ages.  They 
tell  us  that  primitive  man  had  the  same  high  cerebral 
organisation  which  he  possesses  now,  and,  we  may 
infer,  the  same  high  intellectual  and  moral  nature, 
fitting  him  for  communion  with  God  and  headship 
over  the  lower  world.  They  indicate  also,  like  the 
mound-builders,  who  preceded  the  North  American 
Indian,  that  man's  earlier  state  was  the  best — that  he 
had  been  a  high  and  noble  creature  before  he  became 
a  savage.  It  is  not  conceivable  that  their  high 
development  of  brain  and  mind  could  have  sponta- 
neously engrafted  itself  on  a  mere  brutal  and  savage 
life.  These  gifts  must  be  remnants  of  a  noble 
organisation  degraded  by  moral  evil.  They  thus 
justify  the  tradition  of  a  Golden  and  Edenic  Age, 
and  mutely  protest  against  the  philosophy  of  progres- 
sive development  as  applied  to  man,  while  they  bear 


THE  PALANTHROPIC  AGE  67 

witness  to  the  similarity  in  all  important  characters  of 
the  oldest  prehistoric  men  with  that  variety  of  our 
species  which  is  at  the  present  day  at  once  the  most 
widely  extended  and  the  most  primitive  in  its  manners 
and  usages.1 

1  Perhaps  no  feature  of  this  early  human  age  is  more  remark- 
able than  its  artistic  productions.  Recent  testimony,  more  especially 
that  of  the  very  careful  explorers  of  the  depcsits  at  Spy,  in  Belgium, 
seems  to  show  existence  of  the  potter's  art,  though  this  until  lately 
was  denied.  These  people  ornamented  their  clothing  with  pearly  and 
coloured  shells,  and  made  beautiful  necklaces.  We  have  already 
noticed  that  found  in  the  cave  of  Goyet.  At  Sordes,  in  the  Pyrenees, 
in  a  very  old  interment  of  this  period,  there  was  a  necklace  of  forty- 
three  teeth  of  the  cave  lion  and  cave  bear,  carved  wi'h  figures  of 
animals  (see  p.  71).  The  handle  of  a  piercer,  represented  on  p.  59, 
is  a  marvel  of  skilful  adaptation  of  an  animal  form  to  produce  a  handle 
fitted  to  be  firmly  and  conveniently  grasped  by  the  human  hand.  The 
figure  of  the  mammoth  on  p.  68  shows  how  a  few  bold  lines  may 
produce  a  vigorous  and  truthful  sketch  ;  and  multitudes  of  such  carvings 
and  drawings  have  been  found  in  France  as  well  as  in  Germany  and 
Belgium.  Even  the  chipping  of  flint  is  an  art  requiring  much  skill  to 
produce  the  fine  knives,  spears,  &c.,  so  commonly  found,  and  there  is 
evidence  that  these  were  fitted  into  strong  and  probably  artistic  handles. 
All  this  and  much  more  testifies  to  the  fact  that  our  palaeocosmic  men 
were  no  mean  artists  as  well  as  artificers. 


£2 


CHAPTER  V 

SUBDIVISIONS  AND  CONDITIONS  OF  THE 
PALANTHROPIC  AGE 

WHILE  all  geologists  and  archaeologists  are  agreed 
in  the  existence  of  the  men  contemporary  with  the 
mammoth  and  reindeer  in  Europe,  and  in  the  fact  of 
two  or  even  three  races  of  men  having  existed  in  that 
period,  various  opinions  are  entertained  as  to  the 
succession  of  events  and  the  chronological  classifi- 
cation of  the  remains.  Mortillet,  whose  arrangement 
has  been  usually  adopted  in  France,  recognises  a 
period  of  chipped  stone  or  palaeolithic  period,  corre- 
sponding to  the  palanthropic  age,  and  a  period  of 
polished  stone,  corresponding  to  the  neanthropic  age. 
Within  the  former  he  believes  that  it  is  possible  to 
separate  different  ages,1  from  the  character  of  the 
implements  and  other  remains.  The  first  two  are 
characterised  by  the  presence  of  two  elephants,  the 
mammoth  and  another  species  (E.  antiquus\  the  next 
two  by  the  mammoth  associated  with  the  cave  bear 

1  Respectively  the  Achulienne,  Chellienne,  Mousterienne,  Solou- 
triennc,  and  Magdalenienne. 


70  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

and  reindeer,  the  last  by  the  nearly  entire  pre- 
dominance of  the  reindeer.  Dupont  is  content  in 
Belgium  to  recognise  a  mammoth  age  and  a  reindeer 
age,  but  the  latter  perhaps  includes  some  deposits 
which  are  properly  neanthropic. 

Carthaillac  places  the  whole  palanthropic  age  as 
quaternary,  properly  so-called,  which  he  separates 
from  the  tertiary  on  the  one  hand  and  the  modern 
on  the  other,  and  divides  his  quaternary  into  two 
stages,  the  first  characterised  by  E.  antiquus  and 
Mortillet's  Chellean  men,  the  second  by  the  mammoth 
and  reindeer — the  earlier  of  these  two  periods  being 
warm  and  moist,  the  latter  cold  and  dry.  The  table 
appended  to  this  chapter  is  modified  from  those  of 
Carthaillac.  Dawkins,  while  admitting  a  similar  two- 
fold division,  calls  the  earlier  men  those  of  the  river 
gravels,  the  latter  those  of  the  caves. 

This  twofold  division  of  the  palanthropic  age 
requires  some  consideration.  In  the  first  place,  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  the  Canstadt  race  locally 
preceded  that  of  Cro-magnon.  I  say  locally,  for  no 
one  supposes  that  they  are  distinct  species,  and  as 
varietal  forms  they  may  have  originated  from  a 
common  intermediate  ancestor,  or  the  humbler  race 
may  be  the  earlier,  and  the  higher  race  an  improvement 
on  it,  or  the  lower  race  may  have  been  a  degraded 
type  of  the  higher.  Probably  also  there  was  a  third, 
the  Truchere  race,  and  the  Cro-magnon  race  may 
have  been  a  half-breed  or  metis  progeny. 

Again,  there  was  an  undoubted  change  of  fauna 


SUBDIVISIONS  AND  CONDITIONS  71 

within  the  palanthropic  age,  and  this  dependent  on 
or  accompanied  by  a  change  of  climate.  The  earlier 
elephant  of  the  period  (E.  antiquus)  and  its  companion 
animals  are  believed  to  have  been  suited  to  a  warm 
climate,  and  to  have  entered  Europe  from  the  south- 
east. With,  or  immediately  after,  them  came  man, 
and  this  conclusion  harmonises  with  human  phy- 
siology, for  we  know  that  man  must  have  originated 
in  a  warm  climate,  and  must  in  the  first  place  have 
been  a  feeder  on  fruits  and  grains  or  other  nutritious 


TOOTH   OF   CAVE    BEAR,    WITH   ENGRAVING   OF   A   SEAL,    FROM   A 

COLLAR  FOUND  AT  SORDES,  PYRENEES  (after  Carthaillac) 

vegetable  products.  In  this  early  stage  he  would 
be  nearly  destitute  of  implements  and  weapons.  But 
in  the  succeeding  cold  period,  one  tribe  after  another 
might  be  obliged  to  resort  to  hunting  habits,  to  the 
use  of  fire  and  of  clothing,  and  of  natural  and  arti- 
ficial shelter.  Hence  the  peculiarities  of  the  cave 
men,  who,  while  they  advanced  in  art,  may  have  also 
advanced  in  ferocity  and  warlike  habits,  under  the 
pressure  of  necessity  and  competition.  Hence  also 
their  association  more  and  more  closely  with  such 


72  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

animals  as  the  reindeer,  the  hairy  mammoth,  and  the 
woolly  rhinoceros,  while  the  previous  species  had 
migrated  to  the  south  or  perished.  Thus  it  would 
appear  that  the  men  of  the  mammoth  age  may  not  be 
really  the  most  primitive  men,  but  a  derivative  from 
them  under  pressure  of  a  severe  climate.  This  possi- 
bility may  be  summed  up  as  follows.  If  the  early 
part  of  the  post-glacial  or  palanthropic  era  was 
characterised  by  a  milder  climate  than  its  later  period, 
this  may  have  had  much  to  do  with  the  change  in 
implements  and  weapons.  The  earliest  men  probably 
subsisted  merely  on  natural  fruits  and  other  vegetable 
productions.  To  secure  these  in  a  mild  climate  they 
would  require  no  implements,  except  perhaps  to  dig 
for  roots  or  to  crack  nuts.  If  they  migrated  into  a 
colder  climate,  or  if  the  climate  became  more  severe, 
they  might  be  obliged  to  become  hunters  and  fisher- 
men, and  would  invent  new  implements  and  weapons, 
not  because  they  had  advanced  in  civilisation,  but,  as 
Lamech  has  it  in  Genesis,  *  because  of  the  ground 
which  the  Lord  had  cursed,'  and  which  would  no 
longer  yield  food  to  them.  At  the  same  time  they 
might  contend  with  one  another  for  the  most  sheltered 
and  productive  stations,  and  so  war  might  further 
stimulate  that  very  questionable  advance  in  civilisa- 
tion which  consists  in  the  improvement  of  weapons  of 
destruction.  We  have  much  to  learn  as  to  these 
matters ;  but  we  must,  if  we  have  any  regard  to  phy- 
siology and  to  natural  probability,  start  from  the  idea 
that  the  most  primitive  men  were  frugivorous  and 


SUBDIVISIONS  AND  CONDITIONS  73 

fitted  for  a  mild  climate.  In  this  case  we  should 
expect  that  these  earliest  men  would  leave  behind 
them  scarcely  any  weapons  or  implements  except 
of  the  simplest  kind,  and  that  their  apparent  pro- 
gress in  the  arts  of  war  and  the  chase  might  in 
reality  be  evidence,  up  to  a  certain  point  at  least,  of 
increasing  barbarism.  Primitive  as  well  as  modern 
men  present  in  these  respects  strange  paradoxes. 

We  have  to  inquire  in  the  sequel  as  to  the  cause 
of-  the  final  disappearance  of  the  palaeocosmic  men, 
and  as  to  the  question  whether  history  is  cognisant  of 
any  such  human  period  as  that  which  has  occupied  us 
in  this  chapter,  or  whether,  as  has  sometimes  been 
assumed,  it  is  altogether  prehistoric. 

On  the  subject  of  the  correlation  of  the  French 
and  Belgian  discoveries  as  to  primitive  man,  a  most 
interesting  and  important  communication  was  made 
by  Dupont  to  the  Geological  Society  of  Belgium  in 
I892.1  The  veteran  explorer  of  the  Belgian  caves 
addresses  himself  in  this  paper  to  a  careful  comparison 
of  the  geological  relations,  animal  remains  and  human 
relics  in  these  caves,  and  in  the  gravels  and  '  quater- 
nary '  clays  associated  with  them.  He  arrives  at  the 
conclusion,  which  I  had  already  stated,2  that  these 
deposits  are  contemporaneous  and  show  similar 
stages,  but  that  the  mammoth  age  properly  so-called, 
in  which  the  primitive  people  fed  on  the  mam- 

1  Bulletin  de  la  Societt Beige  de  Gtologie,  Janvier  1893.     This  paper 
should  be  studied  by  all  interested  in  the  subject. 

2  Fossil  Men. 


74  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

moth  and  its  companion  the  woolly  rhinoceros,  ex- 
tended to  a  later  date  in  Belgium  than  in  France, 
so  that  the  mammoth  age  of  Dupont  and  the  rein- 
deer age  of  the  French  archaeologists  overlap  one 
another.  He  notes  in  connection  with  this  that  there 
is  evidence  of  the  continued  existence  of  the  mammoth 
in  the  so-called  reindeer  age  of  France,  in  the  dis- 
covery in  caves  of  that  period  of  plates  of  ivory  with 
the  portrait  of  the  mammoth  engraved  on  them.  It 
would  therefore  appear  either  that  the  mammoth 
earlier  became  extinct  or  rare  in  France,  perhaps  on 
account  of  climatal  changes,  or  perhaps  because  of 
destruction  by  man,  or  that  the  habits  of  the  French 
populations  changed  in  such  a  way  as  to  cause  them 
to  confine  themselves  to  smaller  game.  In  either 
case,  we  now  find  that  the  whole  palanthropic  age  is 
one  period.  On  the  other  hand,  Dupont  agrees  with 
Mortillet  that  there  is  a  hiatus,  physical,  palaeonto. 
logical  and  anthropological,  between  the  so-called 
palaeolithic  and  neolithic  periods,  that  is,  between  the 
palanthropic  and  neanthropic  ages. 

Dupont  holds  that  the  plain-dwellers  (Pediono- 
mytes,  as  he  calls  them)  were  the  earliest  known  men, 
corresponding  to  the  oldest  gravel  remains  of  Dawkins 
and  Prestwich,  and  points  out  that  their  implements 
are  in  size  and  form,  though  not  in  material  and  finish, 
allied  to  those  of  the  polished  stone  age,  which 
might  thus  be  regarded  as  an  improved  continuation 
or  revival  of  this  first  period.  This  might  be  read  to 
mean,  as  above  maintained,  that  the  earliest  men  were 


SUBDIVISIONS  AND  CONDITIONS  75 

peaceful  and  perhaps  in  part  agricultural,  that  they 
were  succeeded  by  lawless,  powerful,  artistic  and 
savage  peoples,  and  when  the  latter  were  swept  away 
that  a  remnant  of  the  primitive  stock  repossessed  the 
land.  If  this  proves  to  be  the  net  result,  it  will 
correspond  exactly  with  our  old  historical  beliefs. 

I  was  struck  in  reading  this  paper  with  a  remark 
of  Dupont  on  the  unprogressive  character  of  the  men 
of  the  mammoth  age,  who  seem  to  have  made  so  little 
advance  in  the  arts  of  life  during  the  period  of  their 
occupation  of  Europe.  Perhaps  he  makes  too  great 
an  estimate  of  the  length  of  their  residence,  or  does 
not  sufficiently  consider  how  long  men  about  their 
stage  of  civilisation  have  remained  at  the  same  point 
in  the  historic  period.  Nor  does  he  consider  the 
possibility  of  the  cave  men  belonging  to  ruder  tribes 
of  a  race  which  may  have  inhabited  better  if  more 
perishable  residences  elsewhere.  In  any  case,  all 
experience  shows  that  to  such  a  people  any  great 
advance  in  the  arts  could  come  only  by  missionary 
influence  from  abroad,  or  by  the  appearance  of  some 
great  inventive  genius  among  themselves  ;  and  no 
good  fortune  of  this  kind  seems  to  have  happened  to 
the  Canstadt  or  Cro-magnon  men,  or  if  it  did,  they 
rejected  their  opportunity,  as  so  many  others  have 
since  done. 

Still,  perhaps,  we  need  not  pity  them  too  much. 
They  lived  in  a  young  and  fresh  condition  of  the 
earth,  enjoyed  a  vigorous  health,  and  were  gifted  with 
rare  strength  and  energy.  They  were  bountifully 


76  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

provided  for  by  nature  as  to  food  and  clothing,  were 
in  slavery  to  no  man,  lived  in  families  bound  together 
by  ties  of  affection,  and  were  free  to  migrate  over  vast 
territories  according  to  the  exigencies  of  the  seasons. 
They  had  some  taste  in  dress  and  ornaments,  and  no 
doubt  enjoyed  their  clever  carvings  on  bone  and  ivory 
as  much  as  any  modern  lovers  of  art  their  most 
finished  treasures.  A  Cro-magnon  '  brave,'  tall,  mus- 
cular and  graceful  in  movement,  clad  in  well-dressed 
skins,  ornamented  with  polished  shells  and  ivory  pen- 
dants, with  a  pearly  shell  helmet,  probably  decked 
with  feathers,  and  armed  with  his  flint-headed  lance 
and  skull-cracker  of  reindeer  antler  handsomely 
carved,  must  have  been  a  somewhat  noble  savage,  and 
he  must  have  rejoiced  in  the  chase  of  the  mammoth, 
the  rhinoceros,  the  bison,  and  the  wild  horse  and 
reindeer,  and  in  launching  his  curiously-constructed 
harpoons  against  the  salmon  and  other  larger  fish  that 
haunted  the  rivers. 

Nor  was  he  destitute  of  higher  hopes.  He  laid 
his  dead  reverently  in  the  bosom  of  mother  earth, 
with  such  things  as  had  been  pleasant  or  useful  in  life, 
and  his  rudimentary  bible,  or  '  book  of  the  dead/  must 
have  at  least  included  the  idea — 'This  corruptible 
shall  put  on  incorruption,  this  mortal  immortality.1 
That  is  the  meaning  of  such  funeral  gifts  in  every 
part  of  the  world,  and  has  always  been  so,  as  far  as  we 
can  learn.  But  the  belief  in  immortality  implies  also 
a  belief  in  a  God  or  gods.  For  if  there  is  a  spiritual 
world  for  the  dead,  there  must  be  a  Power  to  care  for 


SUBDIVISIONS  AND   CONDITIONS  77 

them  there.  Whether  these  beliefs  were  originally 
implanted  in  him  when  God  breathed  into  his  nostrils 
the  breath  of  life,  or  were  taught  to  him  by  special 
revelation,  we  do  not  know,  but  they  were  there  as  a 
foundation  on  which  he  could,  with  the  aid  of  his 
sense  of  right  and  wrong,  build  a  happy  and  harmless 
life.  That  he  did  not  always  do  so  we  have  some  sad 
evidence,  to  be  gathered  even  from  his  bones  ;  and 
the  testimony  of  tradition  is  that  his  great  sin  was 
that  of  inhuman  violence,  and  it  was  for  this  that  he 
was  swept  away  by  the  Flood,  and  replaced  by  men  of 
more  peaceful  mould,  whom  but  for  that  catastrophe 
he  would  soon  have  annihilated. 

Carthaillac  l  devotes  a  chapter  to  the  mortuary 
customs  of  the  men  of  the  quaternary  (palanthropic) 
age.  He  shows  that  the  statement  sometimes  made 
that  these  men  did  not  care  for  the  dead  is  entirely 
incorrect,  though  he  believes  that  we  know  com- 
paratively little  of  their  burials,  owing  to  the  circum- 
stance that  only  those  in  caverns  were  likely  to  be 
preserved  or  discovered.  The  discoveries  at  Spy,  in 
Belgium,  show  that  even  the  Canstadt  race,  the  lowest 
in  development,  and  probably  in  art,  interred  the 
bodies  of  their  dead,  while  a  large  number  of  inter- 
ments of  the  Cro-magnon  race  are  known.  He  calls 
attention  to  the  fact  that  in  all  of  these  the  body  lies 
on  its  side.  The  hands  are  brought  up  to  the  head 
or  neck,  and  the  knees  are  bent,  sometimes  slightly, 
sometimes  very  strongly,  so  as  to  give  the  body  a 

1  Hommc  Prehistorique. 


78  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

crouching  posture  (p.  79).  The  idea  seems  to  have 
been  to  place  the  body  in  the  attitude  of  sleep  or 
of  rest.  The  deceased  was  arrayed  in  the  gar- 
ments and  ornaments  worn  during  life,  and  not  in- 
frequently a  quantity  of  red  oxide  of  iron  was  buried 
with,  or  has  been  scattered  over,  the  body.  Flint 
knives  and  lances  seem  often  to  have  been  placed  with 
the  dead.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  all  this  recalls 
the  burial  customs  of  many  rude  tribes  of  men  up  to 
modern  times. 

There  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  occasionally, 
at  least,  the  flesh  has  been  partially  removed  from 
the  bones  before  interment.  This  reminds  us  of  the 
custom  of  some  American  tribes,  who  were  in  the 
habit  of  disinterring  the  dead  after  a  temporary  burial, 
carefully  cleaning  the  bones,  and  then  placing  them 
Wrapped  in  skins  in  their  tribal  ossuaries.  It  would 
seem,  however,  that  the  primitive  men  when  they 
removed  the  flesh  did  so  in  a  recent  state.  Perhaps 
this  practice  was  resorted  to  only  when  the  body  had 
to  be  kept  for  some  time,  or  carried  some  distance  for 
interment.  If  the  body  was  disembowelled  and  the 
remaining  flesh  and  ligaments  dried,  it  would  be 
reduced  very  nearly  to  the  condition  of  the  imperfect 
mummies  of  the  Guanches  of  the  Canaries  and  of  the 
Peruvians.  Thus  we  may  suppose  that  we  have  here 
a  rudimentary  condition  of  the  art  of  the  embalmer. 

Some  questions  still  remain  as  to  the  races  of  men 
actually  known  to  us  in  the  palanthropic  age.  It 
has  already  been  explained  that  in  the  earliest  part  of 


SUBDIVISIONS  AND  CONDITIONS 


79 


this  period,  that  characterised  by  the  presence  of  the 
Elephas  antiquus  in  Europe,  there  are  evidences  of 
the  existence  of  man,  and  this  in  a  more  genial 


THE     SKELETON     OF     LAUGERIE     BASSE,     DORDOGNE,     SHOWING 
THE   POSITION   OF   THE   PERFORATED   SHELLS   ON   THE   LIMBS 

AND  FOREHEAD  (after  Carthaillac) 

climate  than  that  prevailing  later.  Of  these  men  we 
have  no  certain  osseous  remains.  Should  these  be 
found,  we  may  anticipate  that  their  characters  would 


8o  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

be  peculiar,  and  would  indicate  a  frugivorous  rather 
than  a  carnivorous  mode  of  life,  and  less  of  rude 
power  than  that  evidenced  by  the  Canstadt  and  Cro- 
magnon  races. 

Of  the  latter,  though  both  are  of  the  same  faunal 
period,  and  therefore  geologically  contemporaneous, 
the  former,  the  lower  of  the  two  in  point  of  physical 
development,  is  apparently  in  Western  Europe  the 
older,  and  represents  the  earlier  part  of  the  mammoth 
age,  when  the  climate  had  become  cooler  and  Elephas 
primigenius  had  succeeded  to  E.  antiquus.  The  Cro- 
magnon  race,  beginning  in  this  period,  goes  on  to  the 
close  of  the  mammoth  age,  which,  as  already  stated, 
coincides  with  the  reindeer  age  of  the  French  arch- 
aeologists. This  Cro-magnon  race  I  am  disposed  to 
regard  as  a  mixed  or  half-  breed  tribe,  produced  by  the 
union  of  the  Canstadt  peoples  with  the  higher  race 
already  hinted  at.  This  last  may  possibly  be  repre- 
sented by  a  few  skulls  more  resembling  those  of  the 
men  of  the  neanthropic  age,  which  are  occasionally 
found  in  the  burials  of  the  Cro-magnon  people,  and 
of  which  that  found  at  Truchere  has  been  already 
referred  to. 

We  have  thus  traces  of  two  primitive  or  ante- 
diluvian races,  one  probably  mild  and  subsisting  on 
vegetable  food,  and  another  fierce,  rude  and  car- 
nivorous, perhaps  a  product  of  degeneracy  of  the 
former;  and  a  third,  or  mixed  race,  of  greater  physical 
power  and  energy  than  either  of  the  others.  This  is 
of  course  merely  a  hypothetical  reading  of  the  facts, 


SUBDIVISIONS  AND  CONDITIONS  81 

but  it  is  by  no  means  improbable,  and  would,  as  we 
shall  see,  bring  them  into  close  relation  with  the 
teachings  of  history  and  tradition  as  to  the  antediluvian 
age. 

The  most  careful  and  elaborate  studies  of  these 
several  types  have  been  made  by  MM.  Quatrefages 
and  Hamy.  The  former  sums  up  the  races  of  fossil 
or  *  quaternary'  men  as  six  in  number,  viz. :  (i)  The 
Canstadt  ;  (2)  the  Cro-magnon  ;  (3)  the  mesito- 
cephalic  race  of  Furfooz  ;  (4)  the  sub-brachycephalic 
race  of  Furfooz ;  (5)  the  race  of  Grenelle ;  (6)  the 
race  of  Truchere.  Of  these  only  three  (namely,  Nos.  I, 
2,  and  6)  properly  belong  to  the  palanthropic  age. 
The  races  of  Furfooz  '  and  of  the  upper  beds  of 
Grenelle  are  neanthropic,  because  they  are  found 
with  the  animal  remains  of  that  age,  and  they 
resemble  in  cranial  characters  the  neanthropic 
peoples. 

The  Canstadt  and  Cro-magnon  races  resemble 
each  other  in  being  long-headed  or  dolichocephalic, 
and  in  having  strong  and  coarsely-made  facial  bones, 
but  the  Canstadt  race  has  a  comparatively  low  fore- 
head with  strong  superciliary  arches,  and  round  eye- 
sockets.  The  Cro-magnon  race  has  a  brain-case  of 
more  than  ordinary  capacity,  a  more  elevated  fore- 
head, and  eye-sockets  singularly  elongated  horizon- 
tally. Broca  has  measured  the  cubic  contents  of  the 
Cro-magnon  skull,  and  gives  as  the  result  1,590  cubic 
centimetres,  or  1 19  centimetres  more  than  the  average 

1  Noticed  later,  in  Chapter  VII. 

F 


82  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

of  125  modern  Parisian  skulls.     The  Canstadt  men 
were   of  moderate   stature,  but   strongly   built  and 


SKULL   FROM   TRUCHERE,    SHOWING   A   PECULIAR  PALANTHROPIC 

TYPE  ALLIED  TO  NEANTHROPic  RACES  (after  Quatrefages) 

muscular.     The  Cro-magnon  race  was  of  great  stature, 
some  skeletons  approaching  to  seven  feet  in  height, 


SUBDIVISIONS  AND  CONDITIONS  83 

and  affording  evidence  of  immense  muscular  develop- 
ment. 

The  race  of  Truchere  is  represented  by  only  a 
single  skull ;  but  Quatrefages  vouches  for  it  as  be- 
longing to  the  age  of  the  mammoth.  It  is  a  well- 
formed  brachycephalic  cranium  of  unusually  great 
internal  capacity,  and  would  be  regarded  anywhere 
as  indicating  a  race  of  high  and  refined  cerebral 
endowment.  If  really  of  the  mammoth  age,  it  may 
have  belonged  to  a  straggler  or  captive  from  a  higher 
and  more  cultured  tribe,  introduced  accidentally  into 
a  sepulchre  of  the  Cro-magnon  period.  It  connects 
itself  with  the  speculation  in  the  preceding  pages 
as  to  the  existence  of  such  a  race.  This  skull 
resembles,  as  we  should  expect,  the  type  of  the 
neanthropic  men  who  spread  over  the  earth  at  the 
beginning  of  that  later  age. 


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84 


GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 


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Later  cenozoic 


CHAPTER  VI 

END  OF  THE   PALANTHKOPIC  AGE 

THE  palarithropic  age  came  to  a  tragic  end,  and  is 
somewhat  definitely  separated  from  that  which  suc- 
ceeded it.  This  appears  from  several  considerations 
which  are  too  often  overlooked  by  writers  who  have  a 
prejudice  in  favour  of  everything  passing  imperceptibly 
and  by  slow  degrees  into  that  by  which  it  is  followed 
— an  exaggerated  uniformitarianism  beyond  that  of 
Lyell,  but  in  harmony  with  the  hypothesis  of  Darwin, 
to  which  many  anthropologists  appear  to  tie  them- 
selves hopelessly. 

Three  facts  are  here  specially  important.  The 
Canstadt  and  Cro-magnon  races  are  physically 
different  from  any  modern  races,  and  give  place  at 
the  close  of  this  age  to  peoples  as  distinct  from  them 
as  any  now  existing,  and  who,  on  the  other  hand, 
while  separated  from  the  palaeocosmic  men  preceding 
them,  are  linked  with  the  races  of  modern  times.  It 
is  no  doubt  true  that  occasional  and  abnormal 
human  skulls  may  to  this  day  be  seen  on  living  men 
which  are  more  or  less  of  the  Canstadt  or  Cro-magnon 


86  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

type.  These  are  good  evidences  of  the  unity  of  man 
through  all  the  ages,  but  no  race  exists  having  all 
the  peculiarities  of  these  ancient  peoples,  which  thus 
belong  not  to  a  distinct  species  but  to  a  distinct  racial 
variety  of  man. 

Secondly,  at  the  close  of  the  palanthropic  age  we 
find  a  great  change  in  land  animals — a  number  of 
important  species  hunted  by  early  man  having  dis- 
appeared, <an<i  -the  more  meagre  modern  fauna  having 
come  in  at  once.  Thus  it  may  be  affirmed  that  the 
land  fauna  of  this  primitive  time  was  distinct  from 
that  now  living.  This  implies  either  long  time  or  a 
great  physical  break. 

Thirdly,  this  change  of  fauna  consists  not  so  much 
in  the  introduction  of  new  species  as  in  the  extinction  of 
old  forms,  either  absolutely  or  locally  ;  and  this  agrees 
with  the  fact  of  diminution  of  land  area,  since  it  seems 
to  be  a  law  of  the  geological  succession  that  increas- 
ing land  brings  in  new  land  animals ;  diminishing 
land  area  leads  to  extinction,  and  not  to  introduction. 

Fourthly,  in  accordance  with  this  we  find  that,  at 
the  close  of  the  palanthropic  age,  the  continents  of  the 
northern  hemisphere  experienced  a  subsidence  from 
which  they  have  only  partially  recovered  up  to  the 
present  time,  and  which  introduced  the  modern 
geographical  and  climatal  features.  This  appears 
from  raised  beaches  and  beds  of  rubble,  loam  and 
loess  of  modern  date  overlying  the  dtbris  of  the 
glacial  period  and  holding  the  remains  of  post-glacial 
animals.  These  are  widely  spread  over  the  whole 


END   OF  THE  PALANTHROPIC  AGE          $7 

northern  hemisphere,  and  ascend  in  some  districts  to 
high  levels.  An  interesting  illustration  has  recently 
been  given  by  Dr.  Nuesch  and  M.  Boule,  in  the 
deposits  under  a  rock-shelter  at  Schweizersbild,  near 
Schaffhausen.1  These  show  an  overlying  deposit 
with  *  neolithic '  implements  and  bones  of  recent 
animals,  a  bed  of  rubble  and  loam  destitute  of  human 
remains,  and  below  this  a  bed  containing  bone  imple- 
ments, worked  flints,  and  traces  of  cookery  of  the 
palanthropic  period.  The  whole  rests  on  a  bed  of 
rolled  pebbles,  supposed  to  be  the  upper  part  of  the 
glacial  deposits.  This  shows  the  interval  between 
the  palanthropic  and  neanthropic  periods,  and  also 
the  post-glacial  date  of  man  in  Switzerland,  and  it 
accords  with  a  great  many  other  instances. 

Were  these  changes  sudden  or  gradual?  Ex- 
perience has  no  answer,  for  no  similar  events  have 
occurred  in  historic  times,  and  though  there  are 
records  in  the  geological  history  of  many  mutations 
in  the  elevation  of  the  land,  we  have  no  information 
as  to  their  rate  of  progress,  and  we  know  little  of  their 
causes.  The  changes  of  this  kind  known  to  us  in 
modern  times  are  merely  local,  not  general,  and  in 
regard  to  their  rate  are  of  two  kinds.  Some  are 
abrupt  and  accompanied  with  earthquake  shocks. 
These  are  very  local,  and  usually  occur  in  regions  of 
volcanic  activity.  Others  are  so  slow  and  gradual 
as  to  be  scarcely  perceptible,  and  are  often  of  wider 

1   Nouvelles    archives  des    Missions  t  &c.   voL   iii.      Noticed    in 

Natural  Science,  1893. 


8S  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

distribution.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  these  slight 
and  local  phenomena  furnish  but  little  clue  to  the 
mutations  of  past  periods.  These  were  on  a  far 
grander  scale  and  affected  vast  areas.  We  have  no 
modern  instances  of  these  almost  world-wide  de- 
pressions of  continents  under  the  sea,  though  we 
know  that  these  have  occurred,  one  of  them  within 
the  human  period,  and  it  is  idle  to  speculate  as  to 
their  rate  or  duration  in  the  absence  of  facts.  We 
know  pretty  certainly,  however,  from  the  gauges  of 
time  which  can  be  applied  to  the  close  of  the  glacial 
period,  that  this  latest  subsidence  must  have  occurred 
within  six  thousand  years  of  our  time. 

With  reference  to  the  particular  movement  in 
question,  we  know  that  the  close  of  the  palanthropic 
period  was  accompanied  by  a  movement  at  least 
equal  to  the  difference  between  the  wide  lands  of  the 
second  continental  period  and  the  shrunken  dimen- 
sions of  the  present  lands.  Besides  this  we  find  on 
the  surface  of  the  land  modern  raised  beaches,  depo- 
sits of  loess  and  plateau  gravels,  intrusions  of  mud 
into  caves  of  considerable  elevation,  and  evidences, 
as  in  Siberia,  of  large  herds  of  animals  perishing 
on  elevated  lands  on  which  they  seem  to  have  taken 
refuge.1  In  short,  no  geological  fact  can  be  better 
established  than  the  post-glacial  subsidence. 

J  Prestwich,  'Evidence  of  Submergence  of  Western  Europe,'  Trans. 
Royal  Society^  1893  ;  *  Possible  Cause  for  the  Origin  of  the  Tradition  of 
the  Flood,'  Trans,  Viet,  fnsf.,  1894;  Dawkin^,  Journal  Anthrop.  Inst., 
February  1894.  Kingsmill  and  Skertchly  (Nature,  November  10,  1892) 
report  the  Asiatic  loess  to  be  marine,  and  to  extend  far  upward  on  the 


END  OF  THE  PALANTHROPIC  AGE          89 

Putting  these  facts  together,  we  cannot  doubt 
that  the  submergence  at  the  close  of  the  palanthropic 
age  was  very  considerable,  and  that  it  was  followed 
by  a  partial  re-emergence.  Further,  there  is  no 
evidence  of  any  serious  fractures  or  folding  of  the 
crust  taking  place  at  the  time,  though  it  is  possible 
that  great  lava  ejections  like  some  of  those  ot 
Western  America  may  belong  to  this  period.  It  is 
therefore  allowable  to  suppose  that  the  cause  of  sub- 
mergence may  have  been  either  depression  of  the 
land,  or  elevation  of  the  bed  of  the  ocean  throwing 
its  waters  over  the  land,  or  possibly  a  combination 
of  both.  Movements  of  these  kinds  have  recurred 
again  and  again  in  geological  time.  Their  causes 
are  mysterious,  but  their  effects  have  been  of  the 
most  stupendous  character.  Fortunately,  they  occur 
at  rare  intervals,  and  that  to  which  we  are  now 
referring  is  the  last  of  which  we  have  any  record,  and 
differs  from  all  others  in  having  occurred  at  a  time 
when  man  was  widely  spread  over  the  world. 

The  geological  chronometers  already  referred  to 
inform  us  that  the  land  of  the  northern  hemisphere 
rose  from  the  great  pleistocene  submergence  about 
eight  thousand  to  ten  thousand  years  ago,  and  the 
second  continental  period  with  its  forests  and  its 
teeming  and  widely-extended  animal  and  human 
life,  may  have  been  established  within  two  thousand 

Caspian  plain  and  the  Pamirs,  so  that  all  Asia  must  have  been  sub- 
merged within  a  very  recent  period.  See  also  Fossil  Man,  by  the 
author,  1880. 


90  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

years  of  that  time,  or  say  six  thousand  to  eight 
thousand  years  ago.  How  long  the  second  conti- 
nental or  palanthropic  period  continued  intact  we 
do  not  know,  but  we  can  scarcely  allow  it  less  than 
two  thousand  years.  Perhaps  it  was  considerably 
longer.  Now  on  historical  evidence  produced  by 
Egypt,  Chaldea,  and  other  ancient  countries  in  the 
Mediterranean  region,  we  can  trace  the  neanthropic 
age  continuously  back  to,  say,  three  thousand  years  B.C., 
or  nearly  five  thousand  years  in  all.  Adding  to  this 
two  thousand  years  for  the  palanthropic  age,  we  are 
carried  back  to  a  time  within  one  thousand  years  of 
the  earliest  we  can  assign  on  geological  grounds  to 
the  termination  of  the  great  glacial  period.  There- 
fore, unless  we  suppose  the  last  continental  subsidence 
to  have  begun  some  time  before  the  close  of  the 
palanthropic  age,  and  to  have  continued  to  some 
degree  into  the  beginning  of  the  neanthropic,  we 
cannot  assign  to  it  a  very  long  time.  That  it  could 
not  have  been  sudden  in  the  sense  of  being  instan- 
taneous is  evident,  because  in  that  case  terrestrial 
denudation  of  a  stupendous  character  must  have 
ensued,  and  no  animal  life  except  that  of  mountain 
tops  and  elevated  table-lands  could  have  escaped  its 
destructive  effects,  but  that  it  was  by  no  means 
secular  or  long-continued  is  certain. 

Thus  we  seem  shut  up  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  close  of  the  palanthropic  age  was  marked  by 
great  geological  vicissitudes  of  the  character  of  sub- 
mergence, leading  primarily  to  vast  destruction  of 


END  OF  THE  PALANTHROP1C  AGE          91 

animal  life,  and  secondarily  to  permanent  changes 
both  in  geography  and  climate,  under  which  new 
conditions  the  neanthropic  age  was  inaugurated. 
How  this  took  place  we  have  to  inquire  in  the 
sequel.  In  the  meantime  we  may  merely  remark 
that  since  the  two  principal  races  of  primitive  men 
known  to  us  in  Europe  seem  to  have  perished,  we 
must  infer  that  individuals  of  a  third  race  beyond  the 
limits  of  Europe  were  destined  to  survive,  and  again 
to  replenish  the  earth  in  the  new  era,  and  that 
possibly  these  may  be  represented  by  the  solitary 
Truchere  skull.  In  the  case  of  many  of  the  more 
bulky  and  unwieldy  animals  inhabiting  the  plains  the 
case  was  different.  They  perished,  or  if  any  sur- 
vived the  submergence  they  were  unable  to  multiply 
under  the  new  conditions. 

Desperate  attempts  have  been  made  in  the 
interests  of  extreme  uniformitarianism  to  discredit 
the  abrupt  change  from  palaeocosmic  to  neocosmic 
men.  It  has  been  supposed  that  the  latter  replaced 
the  former  as  conquerors -a  most  unlikely  theory, 
when  their  relative  powers  are  considered.  It  has 
been  conjectured  that  as  the  cold  decreased  the  old 
races  of  men  followed  the  reindeer  to  the  north 
and  became  Arctic  peoples.  But  why  did  they 
not  rather  attack  the  new  animals,  which  in  that 
case  must  have  come  in  from  the 'south?  It  has 
even  been  supposed  that  the  Esquimaux  may  be 
their  descendants  ;  but  they  are  quite  different  in 
physical  characters,  and  have  no  nearer  resemblance 


92  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

in  their  arts  than  other  rude  peoples.  In  opposition 
to  all  this  we  have  not  only  the  remarkable  change 
in  the  races  of  men  and  in  their  animal  associates, 
but  when  we  know  that  the  whole  geographical  fea- 
tures of  our  continents  have  changed  since  the  palan- 
thropic  age,  and  that  not  only  are  our  continents 
reduced  in  size  since  the  continental  post-glacial 
period,  but  that  there  is  evidence  of  re-elevation  as 
well  as  subsidence,  and  this  within  a  short  period- 
say  eight  thousand  years  less  the  historic  period  on 
the  one  hand  and  the  early  palanthropic  on  the 
other — it  seems  impossible  to  doubt  the  greatness 
and  suddenness  of  the  physical  break  that  divides 
the  anthropic  age  into  two  distinct  portions.  All 
this  may  be  held  to  be  certainly  known  as  geological 
fact,  and  it  would  be  folly  to  overlook  it  in  any 
discussions  as  to  primitive  man,  or  in  any  com- 
parisons of  the  evidence  afforded  by  his  remains  with 
that  of  early  human  history  or  tradition. 

But  if  man  was  a  witness  of  and  sufferer  in 
this  great  catastrophe,  and  if  any  men  survived  it, 
did  they  preserve  no  tradition  or  memory  of  such 
a  stupendous  event  ?  We  may  imagine  this  to  be 
possible.  The  survivors  may  have  belonged  to  the 
rudest  and  most  isolated  of  the  races  of  men,  and 
may  have  had  no  means  of  knowing  the  extent  of  the 
disaster  or  of  preserving  its  memory.  On  the  other 
hand,  they  may  have  attained  to  a  sufficient  degree  of 
culture  to  have  had  some  means  of  perpetuating  the 
memory  of  great  events.  If  so,  we  may  imagine  that 


END  OF  THE  PALANTHROP1C  AGE         93 

the  great  diluvial  cataclysm  which  separates  the 
human  or  anthropic  period  into  two  parts  may  have 
left  an  indelible  mark  in  the  history  or  tradition  of 
mankind.  We  shall  inquire  into  this  in  the  sequel, 
but  must  first  consider  what  geological  monuments 
remain  of  the  early  neanthropic  age  in  Europe.1 

In  the  meantime  I  may  remark  that,  if  we  take 
the  Canstadt  people  to  represent  the  ruder  tribes  of 
the  antediluvian  Cainites,  the  feebler  folk  of  Truchere 
to  represent  the  Sethites,  and  the  giant  race  of  Cro- 
magnon  and  Mentone  as  the  equivalent  of  the  '  mighty 
men '  or  Nephelim  of  Genesis  who  arose  from  the 
mixture  of  the  two  original  stocks,  we  shall  have  a 
somewhat  exact  parallel  between  the  men  of  the  caves 
and  gravels  and  those  we  have  so  long  been  familiar 
with  in  the  Book  of  Genesis. 

1  A  valuable  paper  by  Dawkins  '  On  the  relation  of  the  Palaeo- 
lithic to  the  Neolithic  Period,'  reaches  me  when  correcting  the  proof 
of  this  volume.  (Reprint  from  Journal  of  Anthropological  Society^ 
February  1894.) 


94  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  EARLY  NEANTHROPIC  AGE 

THERE  has  been  much  confusion  among  anthro- 
pologists respecting  the  distinction  of  this  from  the 
preceding  age.  The  Cro-magnon  race  has  been 
classed  as  neanthropic,  and  has  been  confounded 
with  a  very  dissimilar  people  which  succeeded  it  after 
an  interval  of  some  duration.  The  gap  between  the 
disappearance  of  the  earlier  race  and  the  arrival  of 
the  newer  has  thus  been  overlooked,  and  no  account 
has  been  taken  of  the  great  intervening  faunal  and 
geographical  changes.  This  has  arisen  from  neglect- 
ing or  being  unable  to  appreciate  the  geological  part 
of  the  evidence  ;  and  the  somewhat  lamentable  result 
has  been  that  it  is  difficult  for  the  ordinary  reader  to 
arrive  at  any  certainty,  in  the  midst  of  conflicting 
statements  all  based  on  imperfect  data.  In  these 
circumstances  it  will  be  well  to  begin  this  chapter  with 
some  examples  of  the  relations  of  these  different 
races. 

At  Crenelle,  near  Paris,  on  the  river  Seine,  there  is 
a  succession  of  old  inundation  beds  of  that  river,  ex- 


THE  EARLY  NEANTHROPIC  AGE  95 

tending  from  the  oldest  part  of  the  anthropic  to 
modern  times,  and  furnishing  what  may  be  regarded 
as  a  chronological  series  for  Northern  France,  as  many 
human  remains  have  been  from  time  to  time  deposited 
on  this  old  eddy  of  the  Seine  and  buried  under 
newer  accumulations.  Belgrand  has  shown  that  in 
the  lowest  gravels  of  this  deposit  the  long-headed 
Canstadt  man  is  alone  found.  Immediately  above 
this  occur  remains  of  the  Cro-magnon  type,  and  these 
are  associated  with  and  overlain  by  beds  holding 
large  stones  or  erratic  blocks,  a  monument  perhaps  of 
the  physical  disturbances  closing  the  palanthropic 
age.  Above  these  the  next  remains  are  those  of  a 
race  of  men  of  smaller  stature  and  with  less  elongated 
heads,  which  we  shall  find  belong  to  the  neanthropic 
age.  Here,  as  Quatrefages  points  out,  we  have  a 
distinct  stratigraphical  succession,  which  accords  with 
that  in  other  localities. 

If  we  now  turn  to  England  we  may  select  from 
other  examples  the  Cresswell  caves,  so  carefully  ex- 
plored by  Dawkins  and  Mello,  and  in  which  we  have 
well-ascertained  evidence  from  fossils  as  well  as  from 
superposition.  Without  going  into  the  details  as  to 
the  several  chambers  and  passages  in  these  caverns, 
we  find  as  the  result  of  the  whole  the  following  suc- 
cession in  ascending  order  : 

1.  White  calcareous  sand,  a  deposit  from  water, 
but  with  no  animal  remains. 

2.  Stiff  red  clay  with  blocks  of  limestone,  and  in 
places  underlaid  by  a  ferruginous  sand.     These  beds, 


96  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

of  which  the  red  clay  is  the  principal,  contain  bones 
of  rhinoceros  leptorhinus,  hippopotamus,  bison,  bear, 
hyena  and  fox,  but  no  human  remains.  Dawkins, 
however,  shows  that  in  other  caves  farther  south  some 
rude  flint  implements  show  that  man  had  already 
appeared  in  England,  though  he  may  not  have  made 
his  way  as  far  north  as  Yorkshire. 

3.  Above  this  lies  a  stratum  of  red  sandy  cave 
earth,  in  which  occur  the  bones  of  the  mammoth  and 
the  woolly  rhinoceros,  the  horse,  the  bison,  the  bean 
and  the  hyena,  but  the  leptorhine  rhinoceros  is  gone 
The  bones  are  gnawed  by  hyenas,  and  there  are  rude 
quartzite   implements.     Over  this,  and   representing 
the  later  part  of  the  palanthropic  age,  corresponding 
to  some  of  the  French,  Belgian,  and  Lebanon  caves, 
are  an  upper  cave  earth  and  breccia,  rich  in  *  palaeo- 
lithic '  flint  implements  and  bones  of  the  animals  of 
the  mammoth  age. 

4.  Above  this,  in  the  surface  soil  and  disturbed 
portions  of  the  underlying  beds,  are  remains  of  the 
neanthropic    period,    including    twelve     species     of 
modern    animals,   but  with   no   trace   of  the   great 
extinct    quadrupeds.     Connected    with    these    were 
human  skulls  of  the  same  type  found  in  the  ancient 
burial  barrows  of  England,  and  belonging  to  races 
still  extant     The  Cresswell  caves  give  no  bones  of 
palaeocosmic  men,  but  they  very  well  show  the  suc- 
cession of  the  early  period  of  mild  climate,  the  later 
severe   climate,   the   extinction   of  the  old   animals 
contemporary   with  the   earliest   men,  and  the  final 


THE  EARLY  NEANTHROPIC  AGE 


97 


succession  of  modern  men  and  animals  to  the  now 
insular  Britain,  which,  in  the  times  represented  by  the 
beds  one,  two,  and  three  above  mentioned,  was  a  part 
of  the  mainland  of  Europe. 


FLINT  FLAKES  OF  TWO  TYPES  FROM   PALANTHROPIC  AND 
NEANTHROPIC    CAVES    IN   THE    LEBANON 

But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  views  of  the 
succession  of  early  men  and  the  gap  between  the 
palanthropic  and  neanthropic  periods  are  presented 
by  the  Belgian  caves  explored  by  Schmerling  and 
Dupont.  The  latter  has  excavated  more  than  sixty 

G 


98  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

caverns,  and  has  carefully  noted  the  mode  of  occur- 
rence of  their  contents,  collecting  at  the  same  time  a 
vast  number  of  bones  and  implements,  now  admirably 
arranged  in  the  museum  of  Brussels.  In  Belgium 
the  earlier  anthropic  period  has  been  characterised 
as  that  of  the  mammoth.  The  beginning  of  the  ne- 
anthropic  is  still  a  reindeer  age,  though  that  animal 
was  apparently  becoming  rare.  It  existed,  as  we  know, 
in  Central  Europe  till  the  time  of  Caesar. 

The  caves  of  Furfooz,  and  especially  that  of 
Frontal,  are  among  the  most  instructive.  Dupont 
has  found  that  in  many  caves  the  older  remains  of 
the  mammoth  age  are  contained  in  or  covered  by  a 
diluvial  or  inundation  mud,1  which  seems  to  be  the 
closing  deposit  of  this  age.  Now  in  the  Frontal 
cave  this  mud  remained  undisturbed  and  extended 
out  into  a  platform  in  front  of  the  cave.  The  cave 
itself  had  been  used  as  a  place  of  burial,  and  as  many 
as  sixteen  skeletons  were  found  in  it,  with  flint 
implements,  perforated  shells,  flat  pieces  of  sandstone 
with  sketches  of  figures  scratched  on  them,  and  an 
earthen  vase.  All  these  lay  above  the  original 
palanthropic  mud  floor,  and  belonged  to  new  tribes 
which  probably  knew  nothing  of  their  predecessors, 
whose  bones  were  covered  by  the  inundation  mud 
below.  On  the  platform  in  front  of  the  cave  was  a 
hearth  with  the  ashes  of  funeral  feasts,  and  around 
this  were  found  a  multitude  of  bones  of  animals, 
of  the  modern  species  of  the  country.  The  people 

1  Sometimes  with  angular  stones — argile  h  blocaiix. 


THE  EARLY  NEANTHROPIC  AGE 


99 


who   used    this   cave   as  a   sepulchre  had   evidently 
arrived  in  Belgium  after  the  palaeocosmic  men  and 


RESTORATION   OF   THE   SEPULCHRAL   CAVE   OF    FRONTAL,    BELGIUM 
(after  Dupont) 

i. and  2.  Gravel  and  clay  of  mammoth  age.  3.  Surface  of  modern  accumulation  of 
angular  stones  and  clay.  (D)  Slab  closing  the  sepulchre.  (S)  Platform  for  funeral 
feasts,  (f)  Hearth.  (R)  Rock  forming  the  walls  of  the  cavern. 

the  mammoth  were  not  only  extinct,  but  their  remains 
were  buried  in  muddy  deposits  ;  though  the  reindeer 

G  2 


ioo  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

and  even  the  wild  horse  still  existed,  and  the  time 
was  long  before  the  dawn  of  any  authentic  history  in 
that  part  of  the  world.  These  men  have  somewhat 
shorter  heads  than  the  old  Cro-magnon  race,  and 
tney  are  of  smaller  stature,  and  with  finer  and  more 
delicate  features.  In  these  respects  they  resemble 
the  men  of  the  dolmens  and  long  barrows  of  France 
and  England,  and  the  existing  Auvergnats  and 
Basques,  and  also  the  Lapps  of  the  far  north.  Dupont 
observes  that  their  materials  for  implements  and 
ornaments  came  almost  entirely  from  regions  to  the 
southward,  and  hence  he  infers  commerce  with  tribes 
in  that  direction  and  the  existence  of  enemies  in  the 
north.  I  should  rather  infer  that  the  men  of  Frontal 
had  immigrated  into  Belgium  from  the  south,  and 
that  they  were  a  small  and  poor  outlying  tribe  of  a 
greater  people  living  south  of  them.  Dupont  also 
remarks  on  their  evident  care  of  the  dead,  a  charac- 
teristic of  the  early  neocosmic  men,  their  belief  in  a 
future  life,  and  the  absence  of  warlike  weapons,  whence 
he  infers  that  they  were  a  mild  and  pacific  race — a 
conclusion  which  makes  against  the  idea  entertained 
by  some,  that  they  may  have  displaced  the  formidable 
palaeocosmic  men  by  conquest. 

Similar  illustrations  are  afforded  by  the  caves  and 
rock-shelters  of  France,  Switzerland,  and  Syria,  and 
have  convinced  many  of  the  ablest  archaeologists  of 
the  existence  of  a  decided  break  between  the  palan- 
thropic  and  neanthropic  ages.  In  such  a  case  also  it 
is  to  be  observed  that  a  few  decided,  positive  facts 


THE  EARLY  KEANTtiROPTC  AGE          IQI 

are  of  more  value  than  any  number  of  examples  in 
which,  from  local  circumstances,  the'  succession*  itfayv 
be  obscure  or  uncertain. 

The  above  examples  relate  to  the  men  of  the 
older  neanthropic  age,  the  men  of  the  so-called 
neolithic  or  polished  stone  age  of  archaeologists. 
These  men  can  be  shown  to  be  identical  with  the 
oldest  populations  of  postdiluvian  Europe,  peoples 
whose  descendants  exist  to-day  in  many  parts  of 
Western  Europe,  though  they  have  been  more  or  less 
displaced  or  mixed  with  later  intrusive  races.  These 
people  have  gone  on  without  any  physical  cataclysm, 
or  change  of  fauna,  or  geographical  or  climatal 
changes  of  any  magnitude,  into  the  ages  of  bronze 
and  iron  and  of  the  modern  civilisation.  Thus,  while 
the  palaeocosmic  men  passed  away  abruptly  and  have 
left  no  certain  successors,  those  who  succeeded  them 
pass  on  without  a  break  into  the  existing  populations 
of  the  world. 

We  must,  however,  here  guard  ourselves  from  a 
misconception  which  has  apparently  unconsciously 
deceived  many  writers  on  this  subject.  It  by  no 
means  follows  from  the  facts  insisted  on  above  that 
there  are  no  direct  links  of  connection  between  palaeo- 
cosmic and  neocosmic  men.  The  ancestors  of  the 
latter  must  have  existed  through  the  palanthropic 
period,  and  wherever  they  were  living  they  may  have 
had  the  same  characters  which  distinguish  them  at 
a  later  time,  and  which  persist  to  this  day.  There 
would  therefore  be  nothing  contradictory  to  our 


102  GEQIfOGY  AND  HISTORY 

'general  VieW'm'* finding  that  the  small,  fine-featured 
.  ;  ;i^ierii\^ho^su;ccce.v:led  the  giants  of  the  olden  time  were 
in  some  more  genial  parts  of  the  world  extant  from 
the  first.  Nay,  it  may  even  appear  that  they  were 
similar  to  the  Truchere  race,  and  that  still  more  primi- 
tive people  whose  bones  are  yet  unknown,  and  who 
inhabited  Europe  in  the  early  mild  period  preceding 
the  mammoth  age.  Neither  is  there  anything  ano- 
malous in  the  occasional  reappearance  of  characters 
similar  to  those  even  of  the  Canstadt  race  at  the 
present  time,  not  because  any  modern  men  are  direct 
descendants  of  this  race,  but  because  under  certain 
conditions  these  characters  tend  to  be  reproduced. 
Let  us  put  the  case  conjecturally  as  follows : 

The  original  men  who  peopled  the  northern 
continents  after  the  first  glacial  period  were  of 
small  stature,  agile,  and  well  formed,  with  mild 
and  pleasing  countenance  and  heads  of  the  medium 
(mesitocephalic)  type.  They  were  dwellers  in  a 
warm  climate  and  subsisted  on  fruits.  As  popula- 
tion increased  and  men  became  hunters  and  fisher- 
men, and  wandered  widely  over  the  world,  a  large- 
boned,  coarse-featured,  and  savage  type  of  man  arose, 
such  as  we  find  in  the  older  caves  and  gravels,  and 
weapons  of  kinds  not  needed  in  primitive  times  were 
invented.  In  this  state  of  affairs,  when  the  coarser 
and  stronger  races  had  made  themselves  masters  of 
the  world,  and  had  perhaps  partially  intermixed  with 
the  older  and  more  peaceful  peoples,  a  great  diluvial 
catastrophe  occurred,  which  swept  away  the  greater 


THE  EARLY  NEANTHROPIC  AGE          103 

part  of  men.  The  survivors  were  of  the  old  and 
unmodified  stock,  and  it  was  they  who  repeopled 
the  new  world,  finding  possibly  here  and  there  some 
survivors  of  the  former  population,  or  themselves 
locally  relapsing  into  a  similar  state,  in  this  case 
all  the  seeming  paradoxes  and  contradictions  which 
have  perplexed  archaeologists  would  be  easily  ex- 
plained. We  might  even  find  occasional  captives  of 
the  primitive  small  race  among  the  interments  of  the 
old  giants,  and  we  might  find  new  races  of  superior 
physical  power  arising  in  the  new  world  and  again 
intruding  on  the  feebler  race. 

In  closing  our  notice  of  this  period  we  may  pro- 
ceed to  connect  it  with  actual  history  in  the  British 
Islands.  When  the  Romans  invaded  Britain  they 
found  in  it  two  races  of  men  physically  very  distinct, 
one  of  them  the  aborigines,  who  had  made  their  way 
to  the  island  as  its  first  population  after  the  close  of 
the  mammoth  age,  the  others  apparently  a  later 
intrusion.  They  are  known  to  English  antiquaries 
from  their  modes  of  burial  as  the  men  of  the  long  and 
the  round  barrows  or  funeral  mounds.  The  first  of 
these  are  beyond  doubt  the  kinsmen  of  our  little 
men  of  the  Trou  de  Frontal,  in  Belgium.  They  are 
thus  described  by  Greenwcll  and  Taylor  1 : 

They  were  of  feeble  build,  short  stature,  dark 
complexion,  and  somewhat  long  skull.  They  buried 
their  dead  in  long  barrows  or  mounds  with  interior 
chambers  and  passages  ;  some  of  these  are  as  much  as 

1  Greenwell,  British  Barrows  ;  Taylor,  Orgin  of  the  Aryans. 


104  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

400  feet  in  length,  and  resemble  artificial  caves ;  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  as  in  Belgium,  they  buried 
their  dead  in  caves  when  these  were  accessible  ;  and 
the  laborious  construction  of  the  long  barrows  when 
caves  failed  is  an  indication  of  the  great  importance 
they  attached  to  the  secure  and  decent  sepulture  of 
the  dead.  No  trace  of  metal  is  found  in  their 
barrows,  and  but  little  pottery,  but  it  is  believed  that 
they  had  at  a  very  early  time  domesticated  sheep  and 
cattle  and  practised  agriculture.  These  people  are 
now  identified  with  the  people  of  the  south  and  west 
of  England,  called  by  the  Romans  Silures.  They 
were  the  builders  of  the  cromlechs,  dolmens,  and 
other  megalithic  structures  so  common  in  various 
parts  of  the  old  continent  Their  type  survives  to 
this  day  in  the  small  dark  people  of  parts  of  Wales 
and  the  south  and  west  of  Ireland,  and  in  parts  of  the 
Hebrides.  Their  physical  characters  connect  them 
with  the  primitive  populations  of  the  hills  of  Central 
France,  with  the  Basques  of  the  Pyrenees,  the  Corsi- 
cans,  the  Berbers  of  Africa,  and  the  Guanches  of  the 
Canary  Islands,  and  the  term  Iberian  has  been  applied 
to  the  whole  group.  Their  language  was  originally 
not  Aryan,  but  Turanian.  They  represent  not  merely 
a  new  race  still  surviving,  but  a  distinct  advance  in 
practical  civilisation  over  that  of  the  peoples  of  the 
palanthropic  age,  in  Europe  at  least. 

At  the  time  of  the  Roman  conquest  this  primitive 
race  had  been  replaced  in  the  east  of  England  and 
south  of  Scotland  by  a  wholly  different  people,  sup- 


THE  EARLY  NEANTHROPIC  AGE 


105 


posed  to  be  identical  with  the  Celtae  of  the  Romans. 
They  were  tall,  muscular,  with  broader  and  shorter 
heads,  fair  complexion,  and  light-coloured  hair.  They 
buried  their  dead  in  round  barrows  or  mounds,  and 
seem  at  a  very  early  period  to  have  possessed  bronze, 
and  so  to  have  introduced  what  has  been  termed 
the  bronze  age  into  Britain.  At  the  time  of  the 
Roman  invasion,  however,  they  already  possessed 
iron  weapons.  These  people  were  Aryan  in  speech, 
allied  to  the  Gauls  and  Belgse,  and  the  ancestors 
of  the  so-called  Celtic  populations  of  the  British 
Islands. 


CROMLECH  AT  FONTANACCIA,  CORSICA  (after  De  Mortillet) 


io6  GEOLOGY  A  AD  HISTORY 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  PALANTHROPIC  AGE  IN   THE  LIGHT  OF 
HISTORY 

THE  time  was  when  the  earlier  books  of  the  He- 
brew Scriptures  stood  almost  alone  in  their  notices 
of  the  creation  and  antediluvian  times,  and  when 
critics  could  quietly  take  for  granted  that  they  were 
altogether  mythical.  This  state  of  things  has  now 
passed  away  from  the  minds  of  the  better  informed, 
and  it  may  be  profitable  before  proceeding  farther  to 
glance  for  a  moment  at  some  of  the  recent  corrobora- 
tions,  if  they  may  be  so  called,  of  the  Bible  history 
from  altogether  unexpected  quarters. 

In  the  first  place,  there  can  now  be  no  doubt  that 
the  order  of  creation,  as  revealed  to  the  author  of 
the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  corresponds  with  the 
results  of  astronomical  and  geological  research  in  a 
manner  which  cannot  be  accidental.1  This  old  docu- 
ment thus  stands  in  the  position  of  a  prophecy  which 
has  been  fulfilled  in  its  details.  Besides  this,  the  dis- 

1  For  evidence  of  this  I  may  be  permitted  to  refer  to  my  work, 
The  Origin  of  the  World, 


EARL  Y  HISTOR Y  lo? 

covery  of  the  similar  though  not  identical  Chaldean 
creation  tablets  throws  a  remarkable  and  interesting 
side-light  on  the  whole  question.  The  Chaldean 
tablets  are  unquestionably  very  ancient,  and  borrowed 
from  still  older  documents  from  which  they  are  alleged 
to  have  been  copied.  But  they  and  the  Genesis 
narrative  are  independent  of  each  other.  Neither  can 
have  been  copied  from  the  other.  Thus  there  must 
have  been  a  still  more  ancient  common  source  of  the 
narrative,  and,  as  I  have  elsewhere  urged,1  the  greater 
simplicity  and  monotheistic  character  of  the  Hebrew 
document  entitle  it  to  the  palm  of  the  higher  anti- 
quity. 

With  reference  to  the  antediluvian  age  and  the 
Deluge,  while  the  Bible  is  here  only  in  accord  with 
almost  universal  tradition,  and  this  in  reference  to  an 
event  which  if  it  occurred  at  all  must  have  fixed  itself 
in  the  memory  of  the  survivors,  it  is  in  remarkable 
accordance  with  very  ancient  Chaldean  writings 
commemorative  of  the  same  event.  Some  principal 
points  of  this  accordance  are  the  following.  The 
Chaldean  account  implies  that  the  anger  of  the  gods, 
or  some  of  them,  against  an  evil  race  of  men  was  the 
cause  of  the  catastrophe.  It  gives  it  a  universal 
character,  so  far  as  the  sphere  of  observation  extended. 
It  represents  the  survivors  as  saved  in  a  ship  or  ark. 
It  represents  Hasisadra,  its  Noah,  as  sending  out 
birds  to  ascertain  the  subsidence  of  the  waters.  In 

1  Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands. 


ro8  GEOLOGY  AMD  HISTORY 

all  these  points  and  many  others  the  Chaldean 
account  agrees  with  the  Biblical  in  representing  ante- 
diluvian men,  or  some  of  them,  as  civilised,  possessing 
domestic  animals,  and  competent  to  construct  large 
ships. 

When  we  leave  the  Deluge  and  come  to  the  post- 
diluvian or  neanthropic  period,  similar  coincidences 
occur.  The  foundation  of  a  primitive  Cushite  or 
Akkadian  kingdom  in  the  Euphratean  valley,  the 
dispersion  of  men  according  to  their  families  and  their 
languages,  the  early  kingdoms  contemporary  with 
Abraham,  mentioned  in  the  narrative  of  his  campaign 
to  recover  the  captives  taken  from  the  cities  of  the 
plain,  the  extremely  early  use  of  the  arrow-headed 
characters  in  Asia,  of  the  hieroglyphic  writing  in 
Egypt,  and  of  a  proto- Phoenician  or  early  Hebrew 
alphabet  among  the  Mineans  of  ancient  Arabia, 
tend  at  once  to  vindicate  the  Bible  history,  and  to 
show  how  at  a  very  early  period  this  history  may  have 
been  rendered  permanent  in  written  documents.  On 
all  these  grounds  scientific  archaeologists  are  begin- 
ning to  attach  more  value  than  formerly  to  the  Hebrew 
annals,  and  to  recognise  them  as  true  historical 
accounts  of  the  times  to  which  they  relate. 

It  may  seem  rash  to  make  such  a  statement  at  a 
time  when  it  is  well  known  that  many  divines  of 
repute  avow  themselves  as  believers  in  the  theory  that 
the  earlier  Biblical  books  are  of  comparatively  late 
composition.  But  Science  will  have  her  way  in  a 
matter  of  this  kind,  whatever  literature  or  criticism 


EARLY  HISTORY  109 

may  say,  and  she  is  beginning  strongly  to  lift  her 
voice  against  the  destructive  criticism  of  the  Penta- 
teuch. In  a  recent  article,  Professor  Sayce,  one  of 
the  best-informed  experts  in  these  subjects,  uses  the 
following  language : 

*  Naturally,  the  "  higher  criticism  "  is  disinclined  to 
see  its  assumptions  swept  away  along  with  the  con- 
clusions which  are  based  upon  them,  and  to  sit  humbly 
at  the  feet  of  the  newer  science.  At  first,  the  results 
of  Egyptian  or  Assyrian  research  were  ignored  ;  then 
they  were  reluctantly  admitted,  so  far  as  they  did  not 
clash  with  the  preconceived  opinions  of  the  "  higher  " 
critics.  It  was  urged,  unfortunately  with  too  much 
justice,  that  the  decipherers  were  not,  as  a  rule,  trained 
critics,  and  that  in  the  enthusiasm  of  research  they 
often  announced  discoveries  which  proved  to  be  false 
or  only  partially  correct.  But  it  must  be  remembered, 
on  the  other  side,  that  this  charge  applies  with  equal 
force  to  all  progressive  studies,  not  excluding  the 
"  higher  criticism  "  itself. 

'  The  time  is  now  come  for  confronting  the  con- 
clusions of  the  "  higher  criticism/'  so  far  as  it  applies 
to  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  with  the  ascertained 
results  of  modern  Oriental  research.  The  amount  of 
certain  knowledge  now  possessed  by  the  Egyptologist 
and  Assyriologist  would  be  surprising  to  those  who 
are  not  specialists  in  these  branches  of  study,  while 
the  discovery  of  the  Tel-el-Amarna  tablets  has  poured 
a  flood  of  light  upon  the  ancient  world,  which  is  at 
once  startling  and  revolutionary.  As  in  the  case  of 


I io  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

Greek  history,  so  too  in  that  of  Israelitish  history,  the 
period  of  critical  demolition  is  at  an  end,  and  it  is 
time  for  the  archaeologist  to  reconstruct  the  fallen 
edifice. 

'But  theveryword  "reconstruct"  implies  thatwhat 
is  built  again  will  not  be  exactly  that  which  existed 
before.  It  implies  that  the  work  of  the  "  higher 
criticism  "  has  not  been  in  vain  ;  on  the  contrary,  the 
work  it  has  performed  has  been  a  very  needful  and 
important  one,  and  in  its  own  sphere  has  helped  us 
to  the  discovery  of  the  truth.  Egyptian  or  Assyrian 
research  has  not  corroborated  every  historical  state- 
ment which  we  find  in  the  Old  Testament,  any  more 
than  classical  archaeology  has  corroborated  every 
statement  which  we  find  in  the  Greek  writers  ;  what 
it  has  done  has  been  to  show  that  the  extreme 
scepticism  of  modern  criticism  is  not  justified,  that  the 
materials  on  which  the  history  of  Israel  has  been  based 
may,  and  probably  do,  go  back  to  an  early  date,  and 
that  much  which  the  "  higher  "  critics  have  declared  to 
be  mythical  and  impossible  was  really  possible  and 
true.' 

In  point  of  fact  a  much  stronger  position  might 
be  held  in  favour  of  Genesis,  and  we  shall  find  in 
comparing  it  with  the  monuments  of  the  palanthropic 
and  early  neanthropic  ages  that  its  statements  vin- 
dicate themselves  as  derived  from  original  contem- 
porary documents,  which  were  under  no  obligations 
to  the  literature  or  philosophy  of  those  later  times,  to 
which  they  have  been  relcgited  by  some  of  the  critics. 


EARLY  HISTORY  in 

Let  us  inquire  a  little  more  in  detail  into  the 
general  features  of  these  early  historic  notices. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  inquiry  we  may  content 
ourselves  with  the  consideration  of  the  ancient 
Hebrew  documents  incorporated  in  the  Book  of 
Genesis,  and  the  remains  which  have  been  preserved 
of  the  old  Chaldean  literature.  Both  of  these  re- 
present an  antediluvian  period  of  long  duration.1 
Both  refer  the  primitive  seats  of  population  to  the 
Euphratean  region  of  Western  Asia.  Both  terminate 
the  antediluvian  age  with  a  great  diluvial  catastrophe. 
These  are  sufficient  points  of  general  agreement  to 
make  it  probable  that  both  originated  in  one  funda- 
mental history,  or  at  least  were  based  on  attempts  to 
describe  the  same  events.  Otherwise  there  are  great 
differences.  The  Chaldean  accounts  have  a  prolix 
iteration,  which  makes  it  probable  that  they  were 
prepared  for  popular  and  liturgic  use,  and  may  not 
fairly  represent  the  original  documents  in  possession 
of  the  priestly  class.  They  also  naturally  introduce 
all  the  personnel  of  the  Chaldean  pantheon,  and  as 
this  must  have  been  a  thing  of  gradual  growth  it 
gives  them  an  air  of  recency,  though  we  know  that 
they  are  very  old.  The  Hebrew  version,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  monotheistic,  and  has  an  aspect  of  severe 
simplicity  in  striking  contrast  to  the  florid  and  popu- 
lar Chaldean  version. 

1  Hommel  has  proved  (Journal  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archao- 
logy,  1893),  what  has  always  been  suspected,  that  the  ten  patriarchs  of 
Berosus  are  the  same  with  those  of  the  Sethite  line  in  Genesis. 


ii2  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

We  may  first  notice  what  history  can  tell  of  the 
palanthropic  age,  supposing  this  to  be  the  same  with 
that  historically  known  as  antediluvian.  The  account 
of  creation  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  altogether 
general,  and  has  no  local  colouring.  It  evidently 
refers  to  the  whole  history  of  the  making  of  the 
earth.  The  second  chapter,  on  the  other  hand,  begins 
at  verse  4  the  special  history  of  man,  and  opens  with 
a  picture  which  is  not,  as  some  have  rashly  supposed, 
a  repetition  of  the  previous  general  account  of 
creation,  and  still  less  contradictory  to  it,  but  a  state- 
ment that  immediately  before  the  introduction  of 
man  the  earth  had  been  in  a  desolate  and  compara- 
tively untenanted  state,  that  state  to  which  we  know 
it  had  been  reduced  by  the  glacial  cold  and  sub- 
mergence. 

Thus  the  two  accounts  of  the  creation  of  man, 
that  in  which  he  appears  in  his  chronological  position 
in  the  general  development,  and  that  in  which  he 
takes  a  first  place,  as  introductory  to  his  special 
history,  are  not  contradictory,  but  complementary  to 
each  other ;  and  the  latter  refers  wholly  to  man  and 
the  creatures  contemporary  with  him  in  the  palan- 
thropic age.  It  is  in  accordance  with  this,  and  no 
doubt  intended  by  the  editor  to  mark  this  distinc- 
tion, that  the  name  Elohim  is  used  in  the  general 
narrative,  and  Jehovah  Elohim  in  the  special  one. 
The  failure  of  so  many  critics  to  notice  this  distinc- 
tion, which  must  have  been  so  plain  to  the  primitive 
historian  himself,  is  a  marked  illustration  of  the 


EARLY  HISTORY  113 

blindness  of  certain  nineteenth-century  savants,  so 
full  of  their  own  special  knowledge,  yet  so  careless 
of  science  and  common  sense. 

It  would  even  seem  that  this  distinction  appeared 
in  the  Chaldean  Genesis  as  well  ;  for  fragments  of 
what  has  been  called  a  second  Chaldean  Genesis  have 
been  found  which  seem  to  correspond  with  the  state- 
ments of  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  this  second 
Chaldean  or  Akkadian  Genesis  as  translated  by 
Pinches : l 

1  The  glorious  house,  the  house  of  the  gods,  in  a 
glorious  place  had  not  been  made  ; 

2  A  plant  had  not  been  brought  forth,  a  tree  had  not 
been  created ; 

3  A  brick  had  not  been  laid,  a  beam  had  not  been 
shaped ; 

4  A  house  had  not  been  built,  a  city  had  not  been 
constructed ; 

5  A  city  had  not  been  made,  a  foundation  had  not 
been  made  glorious ; 

6  Niffer  had  not  been  built,  fe-kura  had  not  been  con- 
structed ; 

7  Erech  had  not  been  built,  6-ana  had  not  bee'h  con- 
structed ; 

8  The  Abyss  had  not  been  made,  6-ridu  had  not  been 
constructed  ; 

9  (As  for)  the  glorious  house,  the  house  of  the  gods, 
its  seat  had  not  been  made — 

10  The  whole  of  the  lands  were  sea. 

1  Expository  Times,  December  1892 


H4  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

This  may  be  supposed  to  correspond  with  the  Hebrew 
verses  following : 

And  no  plant  of  the  field  was  yet  in  the  earth. 

And  no  herb  of  the  field  had  yet  sprung  up. 

For  Jahveh  Elohim  had  not  caused  it  to  rain  on  the 
earth. 

And  there  was  not  a  man  to  till  (irrigate)  the  ground. 

And  there  went  up  a  vapour  from  the  earth,  and  watered 
the  surface  of  the  ground. 

This  is  the  Hebrew  idea  of  the  condition  of  the 
great  Mesopotamian  plain  after  the  pleistocene  sub- 
mergence, and  before  the  appearance  of  man.  The 
Chaldean  version  refers  to  the  same  region,  but  is 
more  elaborate  and  artificial,  and  brings  in  the  his- 
toric cities  of  a  later  time.  This  difference  alone 
would  induce  us  to  suppose  that  the  Hebrew  record 
may  be  a  better  guide  for  our  present  comparison. 

The  Hebrew  writer  in  the  first  place  gives  us  to 
understand  that  a  period  of  comparative  desolation 
preceded  the  appearance  of  man,  a  great  winter  of 
destruction  preparatory  to  a  returning  spring.  He 
then  proceeds  to  localise  primeval  man  by  placing 
him  in  Eden,  the  Idinu  of  the  Chaldean  accounts* 
which  we  also  recognise  by  the  geographical  indica- 
tions of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  as  its  rivers,  with 
two  companion  streams  which  can  scarcely  be  other 
than  the  Karun  and  the  Kerkhat.  Thus  the  Bible 
and  the  Chaldean  account  agree  in  their  locality  for 
the  advent  of  man,  for  Idinu  was  the  ancient  name  of 
the  plain  of  Babylonia.  It  has  been  objected  to  this 


EARLY  HISTORY  115 

locality  that  much  of  this  region  is  low  and  swampy, 
and  has  only  recently  become  land  by  the  encroach- 
ment of  the  rivers  on  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf. 
But  if  our  Biblical  authority  really  refers  to  palan- 
thropic  man,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  in  the  post- 
glacial period  the  continents  were  higher  than  now, 
and  the  Babylonian  plain  must  have  been  a  dry  and 
elevated  district,  in  all  probaoility  forest-clad.  We 
must  also  bear  in  mind  that  Eden  was  a  region  of 
country,  and  that  the  '  garden  '  or  selected  spot  '  east- 
ward in  Eden '  may  have  been  some  rich  wooded 
island  surrounded  by  the  river  streams,  and  producing 
all  fruits  pleasant  to  the  taste  and  good  for  food.  In 
any  case  the  modern  objections  to  the  site  are  based 
on  entire  ignorance  of  its  geological  history,  and  only 
serve  to  show  how  much  better  informed  the  ancient 
writer  was  as  to  antediluvian  geography  than  his 
modern  critics.1 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  this  Biblical 
environment  of  primitive  man  corresponds  with  the 
requirements  of  the  case.  In  a  genial  climate  and 
sheltered  position,  and  supplied  with  abundance  of 
food,  the  first  men  would  have  the  conditions  neces- 
sary for  comfortable  existence  and  for  multiplying  in 
numbers. 

We  have  also  in  the  description  of  one  of  the 
rivers  of  Eden  a  hint  as  to  a  few  of  the  wants  of 
early  man  beyond  mere  food  and  shelter.  We  are 

1  See,  for  full  discussion  of  this,  Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands,  by 
the  author. 

H  2 


ii6  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

told  that  the  district  traversed  by  this  river  produced 
gold,  bedolach,  and  the  shoham  stone.  I  have  else- 
where shown  that  this  river  must  be  the  Karun, 
draining  the  Luristan  mountains,  and  that  the  pro- 
ductions indicated  must  have  been  '  native  gold  and 
silver,  wampum  beads,  and  jade  and  similar  stones 
suitable  for  implements.'  l  Thus  we  have  here  a 
picture  which  may  well  represent  the  origin  and  early 
condition  of  our  palaeocosmic  men.  But  the  parallel 
does  not  end  here. 

According  to  the  history,  man  falls,  and  is  ex- 
pelled from  Eden,  is  clothed  with  skins,  and  becomes 
an  eater  of  animal  food.  Next  we  find  murderous 
violence,  and  a  consequent  separation  of  the  primitive 
people  into  two  tribes,  one  of  which  migrates  to  a 
distance  from  the  other  and  adopts  different  modes 
of  life.  Finally,  we  have  a  mixture  of  the  two  races, 
leading  to  a  powerful  and  terrible  race  of  half-breeds, 
or  metis,  who  filled  the  earth  with  violence.2 

In  one  point  only  have  we  reason  to  doubt 
whether  this  old  history  fairly  represents  the  palan- 
thropic  age.  It  notes  the  invention  of  musical 
instruments, -the  use  of  metals,  the  domestication  of 
animals  as  already  existing  in  the  antediluvian 
period.  Of  these  we  have  little  or  no  archaeological 
evidence.  The  only  musical  instrument  of  this 
period  known  is  a  whistle  made  of  one  of  the  bones 
of  a  deer's  foot,  and  capable  of  sounding  a  tetrachord 

1  Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands. 
9  Genesis  vi.  1-6. 


MAP   SHOWING   THE   GEOGRAPHICAL  AND    GEOLOGICAL   RELATIONS 
OF  THE   SITE   OF   EDEN   AS   DESCRIBED   IN   GENESIS 


ii8  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

or  four  notes,  and  we  have  no  certain  evidence  of 
metals  or  domesticated  animals.  We  must  bear  in 
mind  that  there  may  have  been  more  civilised  races 
than  those  of  the  Cro-magnon  type,  and  that  the 
latter  evince  an  artistic  skill  which  if  it  had  any  scope 
for  development  may  have  led  to  great  results.  The 
native  metals  must  have  been  known  to  man  from 
the  first,  though  they  must  have  been  rare  or  only 
locally  common ;  and  many  semi-barbarous  nations 
of  later  times  show  us  that  it  is  only  a  short  step 
from  the  knowledge  of  native  metals  to  the  art  of 
metallurgy,  in  so  far  as  it  consists  in  treating  those 
ores  that  in  weight  and  metallic  lustre  most  resemble 
the  metals  themselves.  It  is  also  deserving  of  notice 
that  no  other  hypothesis  than  that  of  antediluvian 
civilisation  can  account  for  the  fact  that  in  the  dawn 
of  postdiluvian  history  we  find  the  dwellers  by  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Nile  already  practising  so  many 
of  the  arts  of  civilised  life.  In  connection  with  this 
we  may  place  the  early  dawn  of  literature.  Without 
insisting  on  the  documents  which  the  Chaldean  Noah, 
Hasisadra,  is  said  to  have  hid  at  Sippara  before  the 
Deluge,  we  have  the  known  fact  that  in  the  earliest 
dawn  of  postdiluvian  history  the  art  of  writing  was 
known  in  Chaldea  and  in  Egypt.  This  at  once 
testifies  to  antediluvian  culture,  and  shows  that  the 
means  existed  to  record  important  events. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  one  of  the  vagaries  now 
current  under  the  much  abused  name  of  evolution 
more  opposed  to  facts,  whether  physical  or  historical 


EARL*  HISTORY  119 

than  the  notion  that,  because  3000  years  B.C. 
we  have  evidence  of  an  advanced  civilisation 
in  Chaldea  and  in  Egypt,  this  must  have  been 
preceded  by  a  long  and  uninterrupted  progress 
through  many  thousands  of  years  from  a  savage 
state.  Two  facts  alone  are  sufficient  to  show  the 
folly  of  such  a  supposition.  First,  the  intervention 
of  that  great  physical  catastrophe  which  separates 
the  palanthropic  and  neanthropic  periods ;  and 
secondly,  the  testimony  of  history  in  favour  of  the 
arts  of  civilisation  originating  with  great  inventors, 
and  not  by  any  slow  and  gradual  process  of  evolution. 
According  to  all  history,  sacred  and  profane,  many 
such  inventors  existed  even  in  the  palanthropic  and 
early  neanthropic  ages,  and  transmitted  their  arts 
in  an  advanced  state  to  later  times.  The  Book  of 
Genesis  testifies  to  this  in  its  notices  of  Tubal  Cain 
and  Jubal ;  and  the  monuments  of  Chaldea  and 
Egypt  show  that  metallurgy,  sculpture,  and  archi- 
tecture were  as  far  advanced  at  the  very  dawn  of 
history  as  in  any  later  period.  It  is  true  that  Genesis 
represents  its  early  inventors  as  mere  men,  albeit 
'sons  of  God/  while  they  often  appear  as  gods  or 
demi-gods  in  the  early  history  of  the  heathen  nations ; 
but  the  fact  remains  that  then,  as  now,  the  rare 
appearance  of  God-given  inventive  genius  is  the  sole 
cause  of  the  greater  advances  in  art  and  civilisation. 
Spontaneous  development  may  produce  socialistic 
trades'  unions  or  Chinese  stagnation,  but  great  gifts, 
whether  of  prophecy,  of  song,  of  scientific  insight, 


120  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

or  of  inventive  power,  are  the  inspiration  of  the 
Almighty. 

We  have  in  the  closing  part  of  the  Bible  story 
of  the  antediluvian  age  even  an  intimation  of  the 
deterioration  of  climate  and  means  of  subsistence 
towards  the  end  of  the  period.  Lamech,  we  are  told, 
named  his  son  Noah — rest  or  comfort — in  the  hope 
that  by  his  means  he  should  be  comforted,  because  of 
the  ground  which  the  Lord  had  cursed.  That  curse 
provoked  by  the  sons  of  man  he  may  have  recognised 
as  fulfilled  in  the  gradual  deterioration  of  the  climate 
toward  the  close  of  the  palanthropic  age.  There  are 
here  surely  some  curious  coincidences  which  might  be 
followed  farther,  did  space  permit. 

We  now  come  to  the  close  of  the  whole  in  the 
Deluge ;  and  as  this  has  been  made  in  our  own  time 
the  subject  of  much  discussion,  and  as  it  contains 
within  itself  the  whole  kernel  of  the  subject,  it  merits 
a  separate  treatment 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  DELUGE  OF  NOAH 

To  the  older  men  of  this  generation,  who  have 
followed  the  changes  of  scientific  and  historical 
opinion,  the  story  of  the  Deluge,  old  though  it  is, 
has  passed  through  a  variety  of  phases  like  the 
changes  of  a  kaleidoscope,  and  which  may  afford  an 
instructive  illustration  of  the  modifications  of  belief 
in  other,  and  some  of  them  to  us  more  important, 
matters,  whether  of  history  or  of  religion,  which  have 
presented  themselves  in  like  varied  aspects,  and  may 
be  variously  viewed  in  the  future. 

As  children  we  listened  with  awe  and  wonder  to 
the  story  of  the  wicked  antediluvians,  and  of  their 
terrible  fate  and  the  salvation  of  righteous  Noah,  and 
received  a  deep  and  abiding  impression  of  the 
enormity  of  moral  evil  and  of  the  just  retribution 
of  the  Great  Ruler  of  the  Universe.  A  little  later, 
though  the  idea  that  all  the  fossil  remains  im- 
bedded in  the  rocks  are  memorials  of  the  Deluge 
had  passed  away  from  the  minds  of  the  better 


122  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

informed,  we  read  with  interest  the  wonderful  reve- 
lations of  the  bone-caves  described  by  Buckland, 
and  felt  that  the  antediluvian  age  had  become  a 
scientific  reality.  But  later  still  all  this  seemed  to 
pass  away  like  a  dream.  Under  the  guidance  of 
Lyell  we  learned  that  even  the  caves  and  gravels  must 
be  of  greater  age  than  the  historical  Deluge,  and 
that  the  remains  of  men  and  animals  contained  in 
them  must  have  belonged  to  far-off  aeons,  antedating 
perhaps  even  the  Biblical  creation  of  man,  while  the 
historical  Deluge,  if  it  ever  occurred,  must  have  been 
an  affair  so  small  and  local  that  it  had  left  no  traces 
on  the  rocks  of  the  earth.  At  the  same  time  Biblical 
critics  were  busy  with  the  narrative  itself,  showing 
that  it  could  be  decomposed  into  different  documents, 
that  it  bore  traces  of  a  very  recent  origin,  that  it  was 
unhistorical,  and  to  be  relegated  to  the  same  category 
with  the  fairy-tales  of  our  infancy.  Again,  however, 
the  kaleidoscope  turns,  and  the  later  researches  of 
geology  into  the  physical  and  human  history  of  the 
more  recent  deposits  of  the  earth's  crust,  the  dis- 
coveries of  ancient  Assyrian  or  Chaldean  records  of 
the  Deluge,  and  the  comparison  of  these  with  the 
ancient  history  of  other  nations,  rehabilitate  the  old 
story ;  and  as  we  study  the  new  facts  respecting  the 
so-called  palaeolithic  and  neolithic  men,  the  clay 
tablets  recovered  from  the  libraries  of  Nineveh  by 
George  Smith,  the  calculations  of  Prestwich  and 
others  respecting  the  recency  of  the  glacial  period, 
and  the  historical  gatherings  of  Lenormant,  we  find 


THE  DELUGE   OF  NOAH  123 

ourselves  drifting  back  to  the  faith  of  our  childhood, 
or  may  congratulate  ourselves  on  having  adhered  to 
it  all  along,  even  when  the  current  of  opinion  tended 
strongly  to  turn  us  away. 

In  illustration  of  the  present  aspects  of  the 
question  I  make  two  extracts,  one  from  Lenormant's 
Beginnings  of  History ',  another  from  a  recent  work  of 
my  own. 

'  We  are/  says  Lenormant,  *  in  a  position  to  affirm 
that  the  account  of  the  Deluge  is  a  universal  tradition 
in  all  branches  of  the  human  family,  with  the  sole 
exception  of  the  black  race,  and  a  tradition  every- 
where so  exact  and  so  concordant  cannot  possibly  be 
referred  to  an  imaginary  myth.  No  religious  or  cosmo- 
gonic  myth  possesses  this  character  of  universality. 
It  must  necessarily  be  the  reminiscence  of  an  actual 
and  terrible  event,  which  made  so  powerful  an  im- 
pression upon  the  imaginations  of  the  first  parents 
of  our  species  that  their  descendants  could  never 
forget  it.  This  cataclysm  took  place  near  the 
primitive  cradle  of  mankind,  and  previous  to  the 
separation  of  the  families  from  whom  the  principal 
races  were  to  descend,  for  it  would  be  altogether 
contrary  to  probability  and  to  the  laws  of  sound 
criticism  to  admit  that  local  phenomena  exactly 
similar  in  character  could  have  been  reproduced  at 
so  many  different  points  on  the  globe  as  would 
enable  one  to  explain  these  universal  traditions,  or 
that  these  traditions  should  always  have  assumed  an 
dientical  form,  combined  with  circumstances  which 


124  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

need  not  necessarily  have  suggested  themselves  to 
the  mind  in  such  a  connection.' l 

On  the  geological  side,  the  following  may  be 
accepted  as  a  summary  of  facts  : 2 

'  If  the  earliest  men  were  those  of  the  river 
gravels  and  caves,  men  of  the  mammoth  age  or  of 
the  palaeolithic  or  palaeocosmic  period,  we  can  form 
some  definite  ideas  as  to  their  possible  antiquity. 
They  colonised  the  continents  immediately  after  the 
elevation  of  the  land  from  the  great  subsidence 
which  closed  the  pleistocene  or  glacial  period,  or  in 
what  has  been  called  the  "  continental "  period  of  the 
post-glacial  age,  because  the  new  lands  then  raised 
out  of  the  sea  exceeded  in  extent  those  which  we 
now  have.  We  have  some  measures  of  the  date  of 
this  great  continental  elevation.  Many  years  ago, 
Sir  Charles  Lyell  used  the  recession  of  the  Falls  of 
Niagara  as  a  chronometer,  estimating  their  cutting 
power  as  equal  to  one  foot  per  annum.  He  calcu- 
lated the  beginning  of  the  process,  which  dates  from 
the  post-glacial  elevation,  to  be  about  thirty  thousand 
years  ago.  More  recent  surveys  have  shown  that  the 
rate  is  three  times  as  great  as  that  estimated  by 
Lyell,  and  also  that  a  considerable  part  of  the  gorge 
was  merely  cleaned  out  by  the  river  since  the  pleis- 
tocene age.  In  this  way  the  age  of  the  Niagara 
gorge  becomes  reduced  to  perhaps  seven  or  eight 
thousand  years.  Other  indications  of  similar  bearing 

1  Les  Origines  de  FHistoire.     Brown's  translation. 

*  Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands,  1888,  pp.  244,  245,  251,  252. 


THE  DELUGE  OF  NOAff  125 

are  found  both  in  Europe  and  America,  and  lead  to 
the  belief  that  it  is  physically  impossible  that  man 
could  have  colonised  the  northern  hemisphere  at  an 
earlier  date.  These  facts  render  necessary  an  entire 
revision  of  the  calculations  based  on  the  growth  of 
stalagmite  in  caves,  and  other  uncertain  data  which 
have  been  held  to  indicate  a  greater  lapse  of  time. 

'  If  we  identify  the  antediluvians  of  Genesis  with 
the  oldest  men  known  to  geological  and  archaeo- 
logical science,  the  parallelism  is  somewhat  marked 
in  physical  characteristics  and  habits  of  life,  and  also 
in  their  apparently  sudden  and  tragical  disappearance 
from  Europe  and  Western  Asia,  along  with  several 
of  the  large  mammalia  which  were  their  contem- 
poraries. If  the  Deluge  is  to  be  accepted  as  his- 
torical, and  if  a  similar  great  break  interrupts  the 
geological  history  of  man,  separating  extinct  races 
from  those  which  still  survive,  why  may  we  not 
correlate  the  two?  If  the  Deluge  was  misused  in 
the  early  history  of  geology,  by  employing  it  to 
account  for  changes  which  took  place  long  before  the 
advent  of  man,  this  should  not  cause  us  to  neglect 
its  legitimate  uses,  with  reference  to  the  early  human 
period.  It  is  evident  that  if  this  correlation  be  ac- 
cepted as  probable,  it  must  modify  many  views  now 
held  as  to  the  antiquity  of  man.  In  that  case  the 
modern  gravels  and  silts,  spread  over  the  plateaus 
between  the  river  valleys,  will  be  accounted  for,  not 
by  any  greater  overflow  of  the  existing  streams,  but  by 
the  abnormal  action  of  currents  of  water  diluvial  in 


126  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

their  character.  Further,  since  the  historical  Deluge 
must  have  been  of  very  limited  duration,  the  physical 
changes  separating  the  deposits  containing  the  re- 
,  mains  of  palaeocosmic  men  from  those  of  later  date 
would  in  like  manner  be  accounted  for,  not  by  the 
slow  processes  imagined  by  extreme  uniformitarians, 
but  by  causes  of  a  more  abrupt  and  cataclysmic 
character.' l 

We  may  proceed  to  inquire  as  to  whether  the 
position  which  we  have  now  reached  is  likely  to  be 
permanent,  or  may  represent  merely  one  shifting 
phase  of  opinion.  For  this  purpose  we  may  formu- 
late these  conclusions  in  a  few  general  statements, 
merely  referring  to  the  evidence  on  which  they  arc- 
based,  as  any  complete  discussion  of  this  would 
necessarily  be  impossible  within  the  limits  of  this 
work.  We  may  first  summarise  the  present  position 
of  the  matter  as  indicated  by  historical  and  scientific 
research,  altogether  independently  of  the  Bible.2 

i.  The  recent  discovery  of  the  Chaldean  deluge 
tablets  has  again  directed  attention  to  the  statements 
of  Berosus  respecting  the  Babylonian  tradition  of  a 
great  flood,  and  these  statements  are  found  to  be 
borne  out  in  the  main  by  the  contents  of  the  tablets. 
There  is  thus  a  twofold  testimony  as  to  the  occurrence 
of  a  deluge  in  that  Babylonian  plain  which  the  Old 

1  See  also  Howorth,  The  Mammoth  and  the  Flood,  and  papers  by 
Professor  Prestwich  in  Journal  GeoL  Society and  Trans.  Royal  Society 
and  by  Andrews,  Winchell,  and  others  in  America. 

2  See  articles  by  the  author  in  The  Contemporary  Review,  Decem- 
ber 1889,  and  in  The  Magazine  of  Christian  Literature,  October  1890 


THE  DELUGE  OF  NOAH  127 

Testament  history  represents  as  the  earliest  seat  of 
antediluvian  man.  As  Lenormant  has  well  shown, 
the  tradition  exists  in  the  ancient  literature  of  India, 
Persia,  Phoenicia,  Phrygia,  and  Greece,  and  can  be 
recognised  in  the  traditions  of  Northern  and  Western 
Europe  and  of  America,  while  the  Egyptians  had  a 
similar  account  of  the  destruction  of  men,  but  ap- 
parently not  by  water,  though  their  idea  of  a  sub- 
merged continent  of  Atlantis  probably  had  reference 
to  the  antediluvian  world.  Thus  we  find  this  story 
widely  spread  over  the  earth,  and  possessed  by  mem- 
bers of  all  the  leading  divisions  of  mankind.  This  does 
not  necessarily  prove  the  universality  of  the  Deluge, 
though  every  distinct  people  naturally  refers  it  to  its 
own  country.  It  shows,  however,  the  existence  of 
some  very  early  common  source  of  the  tradition,  and 
the  variations  are  not  more  than  were  to  have  been 
expected  in  the  different  channels  of  transmission. 

2.  Parallel  with  this  historical  evidence  lies  the 
result  of  geological  and  archaeological  research, 
which  has  revealed  to  us  the  remains  and  works 
of  prehistoric  men,  racially  distinct  from  those  of 
modern  times,  and  who  inhabited  the  earth  at  a 
period  when  its  animal  population  was  to  a  great 
extent  distinct  from  that  at  present  existing,  and 
when  its  physical  condition  was  also  in  many 
respects  different.  Thus  in  Europe  and  Asia,  and 
to  some  extent  also  in  America,  we  have  evidence 
that  the  present  races  of  men  were  preceded  by 
others  which  have  passed  away,  and  this  at  the  same 


128  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

time  with  many  important  species  of  land  animals, 
once  the  contemporaries  of  man,  but  now  known 
only  as  fossils.  These  ancient  men  are  those  called 
by  geologists  later  pleistocene,  or  post-glacial,  or  the 
men  of  the  cave  and  gravel  deposits,  or  of  the 
age  of  the  mammoth,  and  who  have  been  designated 
by  archaeologists  palaeolithic  men,  or,  more  properly, 
palaeocosmic  men,  since  the  character  of  their  stone 
implements  is  only  one  not  very  important  feature 
of  their  history,  and  implements  of  the  palaeolithic 
type  have  been  used  in  all  periods,  and  indeed  are 
still  used  in  some  places. 

3.  The  prevalence  among  geologists  of  an  ex- 
aggerated and  unreasonable  uniformitarianism,  which 
refused  to  allow  sufficient  prominence  to  sudden 
cataclysms  arising  from  the  slow  accumulation  of 
natural  forces,  and  which  was  a  natural  reaction 
from  the  convulsive  geology  of  an  earlier  period,  has 
caused  the  idea  to  be  generally  entertained  that  the 
age  of  palaeocosmic  men  was  of  vast  duration,  and 
passed  only  by  slow  gradations  and  a  gradual  tran- 
sition into  the  new  conditions  of  the  modern  period. 
This  view  long  was,  and  still  is,  an  obstacle  to  any 
rational  correlation  of  the  geological  and  traditional 
history  of  man.  Recently,  however,  new  views  have 
been  forced  on  geologists,  and  have  led  many  of  the 
most  sagacious  observers  and  reasoners  to  see  that 
the  palanthropic  period  is  much  nearer  to  us  than  we 
had  imagined.  The  arguments  for  this  I  have  re- 
ferred to  in  previous  pages,  and  need  not  reiterate 


THE  DELUGE  OF  NOAH  129 

them  here.  A  few  leading  points  may,  however,  be 
noted.  One  of  these  is  the  small  amount  of  physical 
or  organic  change  which  has  occurred  since  the  close 
of  the  palanthropic  period.  Another  is  the  more 
rapid  rate  of  erosion  and  deposition  by  rivers  in 
the  modern  period  than  had  previously  been  sup- 
posed. Another  is  the  striking  fact  that  a  large 
number  of  mammals,  like  the  mammoth  and  woolly 
rhinoceros,  seem  to  have  perished  simultaneously 
with  the  paLneocosmic  men,  and  this  by  some  sudden 
catastrophe.1  It  has  also  been  shown  by  Pictet  and 
Dawkins  that  all  the  extant  mammals  of  Europe 
already  existed  in  the  post-glacial  age,  but  along 
with  many  others  now  altogether  or  locally  extinct 
Thus  there  seems  to  have  been  the  removal  over  the 
whole  northern  hemisphere  of  a  number  of  the 
largest  mammals,  while  a  selected  number  survived 
and  no  additions  were  made.  Again,  while  at  one 
time  it  was  supposed  that  the  remains  of  palaeocosmic 
man  and  his  contemporaries  were  confined  to  caverns 
and  river  alluvia,  it  is  now  known  that  they  occur 
also  on  high  plateaus  and  water-sheds,  in  beds  of 
gravel  and  silt  which  must  have  been  deposited  there 
under  conditions  of  submergence  and  somewhat 
active  current  drift,  perhaps  in  some  cases  aided  by 
floating  ice.2  Lastly,  while,  as  must  naturally  be  the 
case,  in  some  places  the  remains  of  ancient  and  more 

1  Howorth,  The  Mammoth  and  the  Flood. 

2  Prestwich  on   deposits  at   Ightham,    Kent,  Journal  Geological 
Society,  May  1889. 

I 


130  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

modern  men  are  mixed,  or  seem  to  pass  into  each 
other,  in  others,  as  in  the  Swiss,  Belgian  and  Lebanon 
caves  and  in  the  superficial  deposits,  there  is  a  dis- 
tinct separation,  implying  an  interval  accompanied  by 
physical  change  between  the  time  of  the  earlier 
and  later  men. 

Such  considerations  as  these,  the  force  of  which 
is  most  strongly  felt  by  those  best  acquainted  with 
the  methods  of  investigation  employed  by  geologists 
and  archaeologists,  are  forcing  us  to  conclude  :  (i) 
That  there  are  indicated  in  the  latest  geological 
formations  two  distinct  human  periods,^an  earlier  and 
a  later,  characterised  by  differences  of  faunae  and  of 
physical  conditions,  as  well  as  by  distinct  races  of 
men.  (2)  That  these  two  periods  are  separated  by 
a  somewhat  rapid  physical  change  of  the  nature 
of  submergence,  or  by  a  series  of  changes  locally 
sudden  and  generally  not  long-continued.  (3)  That 
it  is  not  improbable  that  this  greatest  of  all  revolu- 
tions in  human  affairs  may  be  the  same  that  has  so 
impressed  itself  on  the  memory  of  the  survivors  as  to 
form  the  basis  of  all  the  traditions  and  historical 
accounts  of  the  Deluge. 

This  being  the  state  of  the  case,  it  becomes 
expedient  to  review  our  ideas  of  the  ancient  Hebrew 
records,  from  which  our  early,  and  perhaps  crude, 
impressions  of  this  event  were  derived,  and  to 
ascertain  how  much  of  our  notions  of  the  Deluge 
of  Genesis  may  be  fairly  deduced  from  the  record 
itself,  and  how  much  may  be  due  to  more  or  less 


THE  DELUGE  OF  NOAH  131 

correct  interpretations,  or  to  our  own  fancy.  In  con- 
nection with  this  we  may  also  be  able  to  obtain  some 
guidance  as  to  the  value  to  be  attached  to  the 
Hebrew  document  as  a  veritable  and  primitive  record 
of  the  great  catastrophe. 

The  key  to  the  understanding  of  the  early  human 
history  of  Genesis  lies  in  the  story  of  the  fall  of  man, 
and  its  sequel  in  the  murder  of  Abel  by  his  brother 
Cain,  the  beginning  of  that  reign  of  violence  which 
endures  even  to  this  day.  From  this  arose  the  first 
division  of  the  human  race  into  hostile  clans  cr  tribes, 
the  races  of  Cain  and  Seth,  on  which  hinges  the 
history,  characteristics  and  fate  of  antediluvian  man  ; 
and,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel,  from  this  arose 
profound  differences  in  religious  beliefs,  which  have 
tinged  the  theology  and  superstitions  of  all  subse- 
quent times.  Of  course,  in  making  this  statement  I 
refer  to  the  history  given  in  Genesis,  without  special 
reference  to  its  intrinsic  truth  or  credibility,  but 
merely  in  relation  to  its  interpretation  in  harmony 
with  its  own  statements. 

It  is  further  evident  that  this  tragic  event  must 
have  occurred  in  that  Tigro-Euphratean  region  which 
was  the  Biblical  site  of  Eden,1  and  that  while  the 
Sethite  race  presumably  occupied  the  original  home 
of  Adam,  and  adhered  to  that  form  of  religion  which 
is  expressed  in  the  worship  of  Jahveh,  the  coming 
Redeemer  and  the  expected  '  Seed  of  the  Woman/  the 
other  race  spread  itself  more  widely,  probably  attained 

1  Modem  Science  in  Bible  Lands  t  chap.  iv. 

12 


132  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

to  a  higher  civilisation,  in  so  far  as  art  is  concerned. 
in  some  of  its  divisions,  and  sank  to  a  deeper  bar- 
barism in  others,  while  it  retained  the  original  wor- 
ship of  God  the  Creator  (Elohim).  Hence  the 
Sethite  race  is  designated  as  the  sons  of  Adam  (Beni 
ha  Adam),  the  true  and  legitimate  children  of  the 
first  man,  and  the  Cainites  as  Beni  Elohim,  or  sons 
of  God.1  The  mixture  of  these  races  produced  the 
godless,  heaven-defying  Nephelim,  the  Titans  of  the 
Old  Testament,  whose  wickedness  brought  on  the 
diluvial  catastrophe.  These  half-breeds  of  the  ante- 
diluvian time  were  in  all  probability  the  best  deve- 
loped, physically  and  perhaps  mentally,  of  the  men 
of  their  period  ;  and  but  for  the  Deluge  they  might 
have  become  masters  of  the  world. 

This  question  of  different  races  and  religions 
before  the  Flood  is,  however,  deserving  of  a  little 
farther  elucidation.  The  names  Elohim  and  Jahveh 
are  used  conjointly  throughout  the  Book  of  Genesis 
except  in  its  first  chapter,  and  their  mode  of  occur- 
rence cannot  be  explained  merely  on  the  theory  of 
two  documents  pieced  together  by  an  editor.  It  has 
a  deeper  significance  than  this,  and  one  which  indi- 
cates a  radical  diversity  between  Elohists  and  Jahvists 
even  in  this  early  period.  In  the  earliest  part  of  the 
human  history,  as  distinguished  from  the  general 
record  of  creation,  the  two  names  are  united  in  the 

1  That  this  is  the  true  meaning  of  the  expressions  in  Genesis  vi.  I 
cannot  doubt.  See  discussion  of  the  subject  in  the  work  cited  in 
previous  note. 


THE  DELUGE  OF  NOAH  133 

compound  Jahveh-Elohim,  but  immediately  after  the 
fall  Eve  is  represented  as  attributing  to,  or  identifying 
with,  Jahveh  alone  the  birth  of  her  eldest  son — '  I 
have  produced  a  man,  the  Jahveh,'  and  which  may 
mean  that  she  supposed  Cain  to  be  the  promised 
manifestation  of  God  as  the  Redeemer.  Accordingly 
Cain  and  Abel  are  represented  as  offering  sacrifice  to 
Jahveh,  and  yet  it  is  said  in  a  verse  which  must  be  a 
part  of  the  same  document,  that  it  was  not  till  the 
time  of  Enos,  a  grandson  of  Adam,  that  men  began 
to  invoke  the  name  of  Jahveh.  It  would  seem  also 
that  this  invocation  of  Jahveh  was  peculiar  to  the 
Sethites,  and  that  the  Cainites  were  still  worshippers 
of  Elohim,  the  God  of  nature  and  creation,  a  fact 
which  perhaps  has  relation  to  the  so-called  physical 
religion  of  some  ancient  peoples.  Hence  their  title 
of  Beni  ha  Elohim.  Thus  the  division  between  the 
Cainite  and  Sethite  races  early  became  accentuated 
by  a  sectarian  distinction  as  well.  We  may  imagine 
that  the  Cainites,  worshipping  God  as  Creator,  and 
ignoring  that  doctrine  of  a  Redeemer  which  seemed 
confined  to  the  rival  race  of  Seth,  were  the  deists  of 
their  time,  and  held  a  position  which  might,  accord- 
ing to  culture  and  circumstances,  degenerate  into  a 
polytheistic  nature-worship,  or  harden  into  an  absolute 
materialism.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Sethites,  recog- 
nised by  the  author  of  Genesis  as  the  orthodox  de- 
scendants of  Adam,  and  invoking  Jahveh,  held  to  the 
promise  of  a  coming  Saviour,  and  to  a  deliverance  from 
the  effects  of  the  Fall  to  be  achieved  by  His  means. 


134  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

It  is  clear  that,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
author  of  Genesis,  the  chosen  seed  of  Seth  should 
have  maintained  their  separation  from  a  wicked 
world.  Their  failure  to  do  this  involves  them  in  the 
wrath  of  Jahveh  and  renders  the  destruction  of  man- 
kind necessary,  and  in  this  the  whole  Godhead  under 
its  combined  aspects  of  Elohim  and  Jahveh  takes 
a  part.  A  similar  view  has  caused  the  Chaldean 
narrator  to  invoke  the  aid  of  all  the  gods  in  his 
pantheon  to  effect  the  destruction  of  man. 

These  considerations  farther  throw  light  on  the 
double  character  of  the  Deluge  narrative  in  Genesis, 
which  has  induced  those  ingenious  scholars  who 
occupy  themselves  with  analysis  or  disintegration 
of  the  Pentateuch  to  affirm  two  narratives,  one 
Elohist  and  one  Jahvist.1  Whatever  value  may 
attach  to  this  hypothesis,  it  is  evident  that  if  the 
history  is  thus  made  up  of  two  documents  it  gains 
in  value,  since  this  would  imply  that  the  editor  had 
at  his  disposal  two  chronicles  embodying  the  obser- 
vations of  two  narrators,  possibly  of  different  sects, 
if  these  differences  were  perpetuated  in  the  post- 
diluvian world  ;  and  farther,  that  he  is  enabled  to 
affirm  that  the  catastrophe  affected  both  the  great 
races  of  men.  It  farther  would  imply  that  these 
early  documents  were  used  by  the  writer  to  produce 
his  combined  narrative  almost  without  change  of 

1  See,  for  a  very  clear  statement  of  these  views,  Professor  Green 
hi  Hebraica,  January  1889  along  with  Dr.  Harper's  rhumt  of  the 
Pentateuchal  criticism  in  the  previous  number. 


THE  DELUGE   OF  NOAH  135 

diction,  so  that  they  remain  in  their  original  form  of 
the  alleged  testimony  of  eye-witness.es,  a  peculiarity 
which  attaches  also  to  the  Chaldean  version,  as  this 
purports  to  be  in  the  form  given  by  Hasisadra,  the 
Chaldean  Noah,  himself.1 

Let  us  now  inquire  into  the  physical  aspects  of 
the  Deluge,  as  they  are  said  to  have  presented  them- 
selves to  the  ancient  witness  or  witnesses  to  whom 
we  owe  the  Biblical  account  of  the  catastrophe,  and 
endeavour  to  ascertain  if  they  have  any  agreement 
with  the  conditions  of  the  great  post-glacial  Deluge 
of  geology.  Let  it  be  observed  here  that  we  are 
dealing  not  with  prehistoric  events  but  with  a 
written  history,  supposed  by  some  to  have  been 
compiled  from  two  contemporary  documents,  and 
corroborated  by  the  testimony  of  the  ancient  Chal- 
dean tablets  copied  by  the  scribes  of  Assurbanipal, 
apparently  from  different  originals,  preserved  in  very 
ancient  Chaldean  temples. 

The  preparation  of  an  ark  or  ship,  and  the 
accommodation  therein,  not  only  of  Noah  and  his 
family,  but  of  a  certain  number  of  animals,  is  a 
feature  in  which  most  Deluge  narratives  agree. 
This  implies  a  considerable  advance  in  the  arts  of 
construction  and  navigation,  but  not  more  than  we 

1  Translation  of  G.  Smith  and  others.  With  reference  to  the 
preservation  of  this  and  the  Hebrew  narrative  in  writing,  we  should 
bear  in  mind  that  writing  was  an  art  well  known  in  Chaldea  and 
Egypt  immediately  after  the  Deluge,  or  at  least  between  2000  and 
3000  B.C.,  and  that  the  Chaldean  narrator  speaks  of  documents  hidden 
by  Noah  at  Sippara  before  the  Deluge. 


136  GEOLOGY  AND  HI 'STORY 

have  a  right  to  infer  from  the  perfection  of  these  arts 
in  early  postdiluvian  times,  when  it  can  scarcely  be 
supposed  that  the  new  communities  of  men  had  fully 
regained  the  position  of  their  ancestors  before  the 
destruction  caused  by  the  great  Flood.  Lenormant, 
however,  remarks  here  : 

'The  Biblical  narrative  bears  the  stamp  of  an 
inland  nation,  ignorant  of  things  appertaining  to 
navigation.  In  Genesis  the  name  of  the  ark,  Tebah, 
signifies  "  chest,"  and  not  "  vessel "  ;  and  there  is 
nothing  said  about  launching  the  ark  on  the  water ; 
no  mention  either  of  the  sea,  or  of  navigation,  or  any 
pilot.  In  the  Epopee  of  Uruk,  on  the  other  hand, 
everything  indicates  that  it  was  composed  among 
a  maritime  people ;  each  circumstance  reflects  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  dwellers  on  the  shores 
of  the  Persian  Gulf.  Hasisadra  goes  on  board  a 
vessel,  distinctly  alluded  to  by  its  appropriate  appel- 
lation ;  this  ship  is  launched,  and  makes  a  trial-trip 
to  test  it :  all  its  chinks  are  calked  with  bitumen, 
and  it  is  placed  under  the  charge  of  a  pilot.' 

This  remark,  which  I  find  made  by  other  com- 
mentators as  well,  suggests,  it  seems  to  me,  somewhat 
different  conclusions.  The  Hebrews  when  settled, 
either  in  Egypt  or  in  Canaan,  were  near  to  the  sea- 
coast,  and  familiar  with  boats  and  with  the  ships  of 
the  Phoenicians.  If,  therefore,  they  persisted  in 
calling  Noah's  ark  a  '  chest/  it  must  have  been  from 
unwillingness  to  change  an  old  history  derived  from 
their  Chaldean  or  Mesopotamian  ancestors,  or  be- 


THE  DELUGE  OF  NOAM  137 

cause  they  continued  to  regard  the  ark  as  rather  a 
great  box  than  a  ship  properly  so  called.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  likely  that  the  particulars  in  the 
Chaldean  account  came  from  later  manipulation  of 
the  narrative,  after  commerce  and  navigation  on  the 
Euphrates  and  Persian  Gulf  had  become  familiar  to 
the  Chaldeans.  Thus  in  this  as  in  other  respects  the 
Hebrew  narrative  is  the  more  primitive  of  the  two, 
and  is  consistent  with  the  necessity  of  Divine  instruc- 
tions to  Noah,  which,  if  he  had  been  familiar  with 
navigation,  would  not  have  been  necessary.1 

As  in  the  Chaldean  version,  the  Biblical  history 
begins  with  the  specification  of  the  ark.  On  this 
(Elohist)  portion  it  is  only  necessary  to  say  that  the 
dimensions  of  the  ark  are  large  and  well  adapted  to 
stowage  rather  than  to  speed,  and  that  within  it  was 
strengthened  by  three  decks  and  by  a  number  of 
bulkheads,  or  partitions,  separating  the  rooms  or 
berths  into  which  it  was  divided.  Without,  it  was 
protected  and  rendered  tight  by  coats  of  resinous  or 
asphaltic  varnish  (copher),  and  it  was  built  of  the 
lightest  and  most  durable  kind  of  wood  (gopher 
or  cypress).  Only  two  openings  are  mentioned,  a 
hatch  or  window  above,  and  a  port  or  door  in 
the  side.  There  is  no  mention  of  any  masts,  rigging, 
or  other  means  of  propulsion  or  steerage.  The 
Chaldean  history  differs  in  introducing  a  steersman, 

1  See  also  the  evidence  of  an  inland  position  of  the  writers  in  the 
record  of  creation  in  Genesis  i.,  as  stated  in  my  work  cited  in  previous 
note. 


138  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

thus    implying   the   means   of  propulsion   as   in  an 
actual  ship. 

Noah  is  instructed,  in  addition  to  his  own  family, 
to  provide  for  animals,  two  of  every  kind  ;  but  these 
very  general  terms  are  afterwards  limited  by  the 
words  iiph,  bemah,  and  remesh,  which  define  birds, 
cattle,  and  small  quadrupeds  as  those  specially 
intended.  Noah's  ark  was  not  a  menagerie,  but 
rather  like  a  cattle-ship,  capable  perhaps  of  accom- 
modating as  many  animals  as  one  of  those  steamers 
which  now  transfer  to  England  the  animal  produce 
of  Western  fields  and  prairies.  The  animals  por- 
trayed on  the  ancient  monuments  of  Egypt  and 
Assyria,  however,  inform  us  that,  in  early  post- 
diluvial times,  and  therefore  probably  also  in  the 
time  of  Noah,  a  greater  variety  of  animals  were 
under  the  control  of  man  than  is  the  case  in  any  one 
country  at  present.1  In  the  passage  referring  to  the 
embarkation,  only  the  cattle  and  fowls  are  mentioned, 
but  seven  pairs  are  to  be  taken  of  the  clean  species 
which  could  be  used  as  food.2  The  embarkation 
having  been  completed  on  the  very  day  when  the 
Deluge  commenced,  we  have  next  the  narrative  of 
the  Flood  itself.  Here  it  is  noteworthy  that  God 

1  Houghton,  Natural  History  of  the  Ancients,  and  Transactions  oj 
the  Society  of  Biblical  Archeology  ;  also  representations  of  tame  ante- 
lopes, &c.,  on  Egyptian  monuments. 

2  This  has  been  considered  a  later  addition  ;  but  the  practice  of  all 
primitive  peoples  has  sanctioned   the  distinction  of  clean  and  unclean 
beasts,  which  is  merely  defined  in  the  Mosaic  law,  not  instituted  for 
the  first  time. 


THE  DELUGE   OF  NOAH  139 

(Elohim)  makes  the  arrangements,  and  Jahveh  shuts 
the  voyagers  in. 

The  first  note  that  our  witness  enters  in  his  '  log' 
relates  to  his  impressions  of  the  causes  of  the  cata- 
strophe, which  was  not  effected  supernaturally,  but  by 
natural  causes.  These  are  the  '  breaking  up  of  the 
fountains  of  the  great  deep '  and  the  '  opening  of  the 
windows  of  heaven.'  These  expressions  must  be 
interpreted  in  accordance  with  the  use  of  similar 
terms  in  the  account  of  creation  in  Genesis  i.,  the 
more  so  that  this  statement  is  a  portion  regarded  by 
the  composite  theory  as  Elohistic.  On  this  principle 
of  interpretation,  the  great  deep  is  that  universal 
ocean  which  prevailed  before  the  elevation  of  the  dry 
land,  and  the  breaking  up  of  its  fountains  is  the 
removal  of  that  restriction  placed  upon  it  when  its 
waters  were  gathered  together  into  one  place.  In 
other  words,  the  meaning  is  the  invasion  of  the  land 
by  the  ocean.  In  like  manner,  the  windows  of  heaven, 
the  cloudy  reservoirs  of  t\e  atmospheric  expanse,  or 
possibly  waterspouts,  or  even  volcanic  eruptions,  and 
not  necessarily  identical  with  the  great  rain  extend- 
ing for  forty  days,  as  stated  in  the  following  clause. 
The  Chaldean  record  adds  the  phenomena  of  thunder 
and  tempest,  but  omits  the  great  deep  ;  an  indication 
that  it  is  an  independent  account,  and  by  a  less  in- 
formed or  less  intelligent  narrator.  It  is  worthy  of  note 
that  our  narrator  has  no  idea  of  any  river  inundation 
in  the  case. 

At  this  stage  we  are  brought  into  the  presence  of 


140  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

the  question  :  Is  the  Deluge  represented  as  a  miracu- 
lous or  a  merely  natural  phenomenon  ?  Yet,  from 
a  scientific  point  of  view,  this  question  has  not  the 
significance  usually  attributed  to  it.  True  miracles 
are  not,  and  cannot  be,  contraventions  or  violations  of 
God's  natural  laws.  They  are  merely  unusual  opera- 
tions of  natural  powers  under  their  proper  laws,  but 
employed  by  the  Almighty  for  effecting  spiritual 
ends.  Thus,  naturally,  they  are  under  the  laws  of 
the  material  world,  but,  spiritually,  they  belong  to  a 
higher  sphere.  In  the  present  case,  according  to  the 
narrative  in  Genesis,  the  Flood  was  physically  as  much 
a  natural  phenomenon  as  the  earthquakes  at  Ischia, 
or  the  eruption  of  Krakatoa.  It  was  a  miraculous  or 
spiritual  intervention  only  in  so  far  as  it  was  related 
to  the  destruction  of  an  ungodly  race,  and  as  it  was 
announced  beforehand  by  a  prophet.  Had  the  ap- 
proaching eruption  of  Krakatoa  been  intended  as  a 
judgment  on  the  wicked,  and  had  it  been  revealed  to 
anyone  who  had  taken  pains  to  warn  his  countrymen 
and  then  to  provide  for  his  own  safety,  this  would 
have  given  to  that  eruption  as  much  of  a  miraculous 
character  as  the  Bible  attaches  to  the  Deluge.  In  the 
New  Testament,  where  we  have  more  definite  infor- 
mation as  to  miracles,  they  are  usually  called  '  powers ' 
and  '  signs,'  less  prominence  being  given  to  the  mere 
wonder  which  is  implied  in  the  term  '  miracle.' 
Under  the  aspect  of  powers,  they  imply  that  the 
Creator  can  do  many  things  beyond  our  power  and 
comprehension,  just  as  in  a  lesser  way  a  civilised 


THE  DELUGE   OF  NOAH  141 

man,  from  his  greater  knowledge  of  natural  laws  and 
command  over  natural  energies,  can  do  much  that  is 
incomprehensible  to  a  savage  ;  and  in  this  direction 
science  teaches  us  that,  given  an  omnipotent  God, 
the  field  of  miracle  is  infinite.  As  signs,  on  the  other 
hand,  such  displays  of  power  connect  themselves  with 
the  moral  and  spiritual  world,  and  become  teachers  of 
higher  truths  and  proofs  of  Divine  interference.  The 
true  position  of  miracles  as  signs  is  remarkably 
brought  out  in  that  argument  of  Christ,  in  which  He 
says,  '  If  ye  believe  not  My  words,  believe  Me  for  the 
works'  sake.'  It  is  as  if  a  civilised  visitor  to  some 
barbarous  land,  who  had  been  describing  to  an  in- 
credulous audience  the  wonders  of  his  own  country, 
were  to  exhibit  to  them  a  watch  or  a  microscope,  and 
then  to  appeal  to  them  that  these  were  things  just  as 
mysterious  and  incredible  as  those  of  which  he  had 
been  speaking. 

Returning  to  the  Deluge,  we  may  observe  that 
such  an  invasion  of  the  great  deep  is  paralleled  by 
many  of  which  geology  presents  to  us  the  evidence, 
and  that  our  knowledge  of  nature  enables  us  to  con- 
ceive of  the  possibility  of  greater  miracles  of  physical 
change  than  any  on  record,  such  as,  for  instance,  the 
explosion  of  the  earth  itself  into  an  infinity  of  particles, 
the  final  extinction  of  the  solar  heat,  or  the  accession 
to  this  heat  of  such  additional  fierceness  as  to  burn 
up  the  attendant  planets.  All  this  might  take  place 
without  any  interference  with  God's  laws,  but  merely 
by  correlations  and  adjustments  of  them,  as  much 


142  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

within  His  power  as  the  turning  on  or  stopping  of 
a  machine  is  in  the  power  of  a  human  engineer. 
Further,  such  acts  of  Divine  power  may  be  related  to 
moral  and  spiritual  things,  just  as  easily  as  any  out- 
ward action  resulting  from  our  own  will  may  be 
determined  by  moral  considerations.  The  time  is 
past  when  any  rational  objection  can  be  made  on  the 
part  of  science  to  the  so-called  miracles  of  the  Bible. 

To  return  to  the  passengers  in  the  ark.  This 
must  have  been  built  on  high  ground,  or  the  progress 
of  the  Deluge  must  have  been  slow,  for  forty  days 
elapsed  before  the  waters  reached  the  ship  and  floated 
it.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  ark  was  built  on  rising 
ground,  for  here  supplies  of  timber  would  be  nearer. 
It  has  puzzled  some  simple  antiquarians  to  find  dug- 
out canoes  of  prehistoric  date  on  the  tops  of  hills ; 
but  they  did  not  reflect  that  the  maker  of  a  canoe 
would  construct  his  vessel  where  the  suitable  wood 
could  be  found,  since  it  would  be  much  easier  to  carry 
the  finished  canoe  to  the  shore  than  to  drag  thither 
the  solid  log  out  of  which  it  was  to  be  fashioned.  So 
Noah  would  naturally  build  his  ark  where  the  wood 
he  required  could  be  procured  most  easily.  The 
Chaldean  narrator  seems  to  have  overlooked  this 
simple  consideration,  for  he  mentions  a  launching  and 
trial-trip  of  the  ship,  a  sure  mark  that  he  is  a  later 
authority  than  the  writer  in  Genesis. 

The  inmates  of  the  ark  now  felt  that  it  was  moving 
on  the  waters,  a  new  and  dread  sensation  which  must 
have  deeply  impressed  their  minds,  and  they  soon 


THE  DELUGE  OF  NOAH  143 

became  aware  that  the  ark  not  merely  floated,  but 
'  went/  or  made  progress  in  some  definite  direction. 
Remark  the  simple  yet  significant  notes — 'The  ark 
was  lift  up  from  the  earth/  and  '  the  ark  went  upon 
the  face  of  the  waters.'  The  direction  of  driftage  is 
not  stated,  but  it  is  a  fair  inference,  from  the  probable 
place  of  departure  in  Chaldea  and  that  of  final 
grounding  of  the  ark,  that  it  was  northward  or  inland, 
which  would  indicate  that  the  chief  supply  of  water 
was  from  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  that  it  was  flowing 
inward  toward  the  great  sunken  plain  of  interior 
Asia,  which,  however,  the  ark  did  not  reach,  but 
grounded  in  the  hilly  region  known  to  the  Hebrews  as 
Ararat,  to  the  Chaldeans  as  Nisr.  A  curious  state- 
ment is  made  here  (Elohist)  as  to  the  depth  of  the 
water  being  fifteen  cubits.  Even  in  a  flat  country  so 
small  a  depth  would  not  cover  the  rising  grounds  ;  but 
this  is  obviously  not  the  meaning  of  the  narrator,  but 
something  much  more  sensible  and  practical.  It  is 
not  unlikely  that  the  measure  stated  was  the  water- 
draught  of  the  loaded  ark,  and  that  as  the  voyagers 
felt  it  rise  and  fall  on  the  waves,  they  may  have 
experienced  some  anxiety  lest  it  should  strike  and  go 
to  pieces.  It  was  no  small  part  of  the  providential 
arrangement  in  their  case  that  in  the  track  of  the  ark 
everything  was  submerged  more  than  fifteen  cubits 
before  they  reached  it.  Hence  this  note,  which  is  at 
the  same  time  one  of  the  criteria  of  the  simple 
veracity  of  the  history.  The  only  other  remark  in 
this  part  of  the  narrative  relates  to  the  entire  sub- 


144  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

mergence  of  the  whole  country  within  sight,  and  the 
consequent  destruction  of  animal  life ;  and  here  the 
enumeration  covers  all  land  animals,  and  the  terms 
used  are  thus  more  general  than  those  applied  to  the 
animals  preserved  in  the  ark.  The  Deluge  culminated, 
in  so  far  as  our  narrator  observed,  in  one  hundred 
and  fifty  days. 

His  next  experience  is  of  a  gale  of  wind,  accom- 
panied or  followed  by  cessation  of  the  rain  and  of  the 
inflow  of  the  oceanic  waters.1  The  waters  then  de- 
creased, not  regularly,  but  by  an  intermittent  process, 
'  going  and  returning ' ;  but  whether  this  was  a  tidal 
phenomenon  or  of  the  nature  of  earthquake  waves  we 
have  no  information.  At  length  the  ark  grounded, 
apparently  on  high  ground  or  in  thick  weather,  for 
no  land  was  visible  ;  but  at  length,  after  two  months, 
neighbouring  hill-tops  were  seen. 

The  incident  of  sending  out  birds  to  test  the 
recession  of  the  waters  deserves  notice,  because  of  its 
apparently  trivial  nature,  because  it  appears  with 
variations  in  the  Chaldean  account,  and  because  it 
has  been  treated  in  a  remarkably  unscientific  manner 
by  some  critics.  It  indicates  the  uncertainty  which 
would  arise  in  the  mind  of  the  patriarch  because  of 
the  fluctuating  decrease  of  the  waters,  and  possibly 
also  a  misty  condition  of  the  air  preventing  a  distinct 
view  of  distant  objects.  The  birds  selected  for  the 
purpose  were  singularly  appropriate.  The  raven  is 

1  Genesis  viii.  1,2:'  And  Elohim  made  a  wind  to  pass  over  the 
earth,  and  the  waters  abated,'  &c. 

V. 


THE  DELUGE  OF  NOAH  145 

by  habit  a  wanderer,  and  remarkable  for  power  of 
flight  and  clearness  of  distant  vision.  So  long,  there- 
fore, as  it  made  the  ark  its  headquarters,  *  going  and 
returning ' l  from  its  search  for  food,  it  might  be 
inferred  that  no  habitable  land  was  accessible.  The 
dove,  sent  out  immediately  after  the  raven,2  is  of  a 
different  habit.  It  could  not  act  as  a  scavenger  of 
the  waters  and  go  and  return,  but  could  leave  only  if 
it  found  land  covered  with  vegetation.  As  a  domesti- 
cated bird  also,  it  would  naturally  come  back  to  be 
taken  into  the  ark.  Hence  it  was  sent  forth  at 
intervals  of  seven  days,  returning  with  an  olive  leaf 
when  it  found  tree  tops  above  the  water,  and  remain- 
ing away  when  it  found  food  and  shelter.  The 
Chaldean  account  adds  a  third  bird,  the  swallow — a 
perfectly  useless  addition,  since  this  bird,  if  taken  into 
the  ark  at  all,  would  from  its  habits  of  life  be  incapable 
of  affording  any  information.  This  addition  is  a 
mark  of  interpolation  in  the  Chaldean  version,  and 
proceeded  perhaps  from  the  sacred  character  attached 
by  popular  superstition  to  the  swallow,  or  from  the 
familiar  habits  of  the  bird  suggesting  to  some  later 
editor  its  appropriateness.  Singularly  enough,  the 
usually  judicious  Schrader,  probably  from  deficient 
knowledge  of  the  habits  of  birds,  fails  to  appreciate 
all  this,  and  after  a  long  discussion  prefers  the 

1  Margin  of  Authorised  Version;  less  fully,  *  to  and  fro 'in  the 
text. 

2  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose,  as  some  have  done,  a  hiatus  here 
in  the  narrative. 

K 


146  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

Babylonian  legend  for  reasons  of  a  most  unscientific 
character,  actually  condemning  the  perfectly  natural 
and  clear  Biblical  story  as  artificial  and  due  to  a  recent 
emendation.  He  says  :  '  When  the  story  passed  over 
to  the  Hebrews,  the  name  of  the  swallow  has  dis- 
appeared/ and  'it  is  only  from  the  Babylonian 
narrative  that  the  selection  of  the  different  birds 
becomes  clear/  This  little  disquisition  of  Schrader 
is,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  amusing  instances  of  that 
inversion  of  sound  criticism  which  results  when  un- 
scientific commentators  tamper  with  the  plain  state- 
ments of  truthful  and  observant  witnesses. 

The  uncertainty  indicated  by  the  mission  of  the 
birds  seems  to  have  continued  from  the  first  day  of 
the  tenth  to  the  first  day  of  the  first  month,  when 
Noah  at  length  ventured  to  remove  the  covering  of 
the  ark  and  inspect  the  condition  of  the  surrounding 
country,  now  abandoned  by  the  waters,  but  not 
thoroughly  dried  for  some  time  longer.  Still,  so  timid 
was  the  patriarch  that  he  did  not  dare  without  a 
special  command  to  leave  his  place  of  safety.  I  am 
aware  that  if  the  two  alleged  documents  are  arbitrarily 
separated  it  is  possible  to  see  here  some  apparent 
contradiction  in  dates ;  but  this  is  not  necessary  if 
we  leave  them  in  their  original  relation.1 

It  will  be  observed  that  a  narrative  such  as  that 
summarised  above  bears  unmistakably  stamped  upon 
it  the  characteristics  of  the  testimony  of  an  eye-witness. 
By  whomsoever  reduced  to  writing  and  finally  edited, 

*  See  Green,  Hebraicat  l.c» 


THE  DELUGE  OF  NOAH  147 

it  must,  if  genuine,  have  come  down  nearly  in  its 
present  form  from  the  time  of  the  catastrophe  which 
it  relates.  It  follows  that  the  narrator  leaves  no  place 
for  the  current  questions  as  to  the  universality  of  the 
Deluge.  It  was  universal  so  far  as  his  experience 
extended,  but  that  is  all.  He  is  not  responsible  for 
what  occurred  beyond  the  limits  of  his  observation 
and  beyond  the  fact  that  man,  so  far  as  known  to 
him,  perished.  If,  therefore,  as  some  have  held,1 
Balaam  in  his  prophecy  refers  to  Cainite  populations 
as  extant  in  his  time,  or  if  Moses  declines  to  trace 
to  any  of  the  postdiluvian  patriarchs  the  Rephaim, 
Emim,  Zuzim  and  other  prehistoric  peoples  of  Pales- 
tine, we  may  infer,  without  any  contradiction  of  our 
narrative,  that  there  were  surviving  antediluvians 
other  than  the  Noachidse,  whatever  improbability 
may  attach  to  this  on  other  grounds,  and  more 
especially  from  the  now  ascertained  extension  of 
the  post-glacial  submergence  over  nearly  all  parts  of 
the  northern  hemisphere. 

Let  it  also  be  noticed  that  beyond  the  prophetic 
intimation  to  Noah,  and  the  one  expression,  Jahveh 
*  shut  him  in,'  which  may  refer  merely  to  providential 
care,  there  is,  as  already  remarked,  nothing  miraculous, 
in  the  popular  sense  of  that  term  ;  and  that  mythical 
elements,  such  as  those  introduced  into  the  Babylonian 
narrative,  are  altogether  absent.  The  story  relates  to 
plain  matters  of  fact,  which,  if  they  happened  at  all, 
any  one  might  observe,  and  for  the  proof  of  which 

1  Motais,  Deluge  Biblique. 

K  2 


148  GEOLOGY  AND   HISTORY 

any  ordinary  testimony  would  be  sufficient  It  may 
be  profitable,  however,  to  revert  here  to  the  probable 
relation  of  this  narrative  to  the  geological  facts 
already  adverted  to,  and  also  its  bearing  on  the 
mythical  and  polytheistic  additions  which  we  find 
in  the  Deluge  stories  of  heathen  nations. 

Regarding  the  Biblical  Deluge  as  a  record  of  a 
submergence  of  a  vast  region  of  Eur-Asia  and 
Northern  Africa,  at  least,  while  no  similar  cata- 
strophe has  been  recorded  subsequently,  it  is  un- 
questionable that  submergences  equally  important 
have  occurred  again  and  again  in  the  geological 
history  of  our  continents,  and  have  been  equally 
destructive  of  animal  life.  It  is  true  that  most  of 
these  are  believed  to  have  been  of  more  slow  and 
gradual  character  than  that  recorded  in  Genesis,  but 
in  the  case  of  many  of  them  this  is  a  very  uncertain 
inference  from  the  analogy  of  modern  changes  ;  and 
it  is  certain  that  the  post-glacial  submergence,  which 
closed  the  era  of  palaeocosmic  man  and  his  com- 
panion animals,  must  have  been  one  of  the  most 
transient  on  record.  On  the  other  hand,  we  need 
not  limit  the  entire  duration  of  the  Noachic  sub- 
mergence to  the  single  year  whose  record  has  been 
preserved  to  us.  Local  subsidence  may  have  been 
in  progress  throughout  the  later  antediluvian  age, 
and  the  experience  of  the  narrator  in  Genesis  may 
have  related  only  to  its  culmination  in  the  central 
district  of  human  residence.  Finally,  if  man  was 
really  a  witness  of  this  last  great  continental  sub- 


THE  DELUGE  OF  NOAH  149 

mergence,  we  cannot  be  too  thankful  that  there  were 
so  intelligent  witnesses  to  preserve  the  record  of  the 
event  for  our  information. 

It  is  needless,  then,  to  enter  into  further  details, 
though  these  are  sufficient  to  fill  volumes  if  desired, 
in  proof  of  the  remarkable  convergence  of  history  and 
geological  discovery  on  the  great  Flood,  which  now 
constitutes  one  of  the  most  remarkable  illustrations 
of  the  points  of  contact  of  science  proceeding  on  its 
own  methods  of  investigation  and  Divine  revelation, 
preserving  the  records  of  ancient  events  otherwise 
ost  or  buried  under  accretions  of  myth  and  fancy. 
I  have  already  endeavoured  to  show  that  the  earliest 
race  of  palaeocosmic  men,  that  of  Canstadt,  very  fairly 
corresponds  with  what  may  have  been  the  character 
istics  of  the  ruder  tribes  of  Cainites,  and  that  if  we 
regard  the  Truchere  skull  as  representing  the  Sethite 
people,  we  may  suppose  the  Cro-magnon  race  to  re- 
present the  giants,  or  Nephelim,who  sprung  from  the 
union  of  the  two  pure  types.  I  have  also  referred  to 
the  possibility  that  the  Truchere  race,  so  little  known 
to  us  as  yet,  may  have  been  a  prot- Iberian  people, 
possessing  even  before  the  Flood  domestic  animals, 
agriculture,  and  some  of  the  arts  of  life,  corresponding 
to  what  we  find  in  the  earliest  postdiluvian  nations. 
This  is,  indeed,  implied  in  the  fact  that  the  postdilu- 
vian nations  present  themselves  to  us  at  once  with  a 
somewhat  advanced  condition  of  the  arts,  especially 
in  Chaldea  and  in  Egypt.  Such  possibilities  may  serve 
to  suggest  to  speculative  archaeologists  that  they 


150  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

cannot  safely  assume  that  all  antediluvian  or  palaeo- 
lithic tribes  were  barbarous  or  semi-brutal,  or  that 
there  was  a  continuous  development  of  humanity  with- 
out any  diluvial  catastrophe.  It  is  also  somewhat 
rash  to  carry  back  the  chronology  of  Egyptians  and 
Babylonians  to  times  when,  as  we  know  on  physical 
evidence,  the  Valley  of  the  Nile  was  an  arm  of  the 
sea,  and  the  plain  of  the  Euphrates  an  extension 
of  the  Persian  Gulf.  It  is  fortunate  for  the  Bible 
that  such  assumptions  are  not  required  by  its 
history. 


CHAPTER  X 

SPECIAL  QUESTIONS  RESPECTING  THE  DELUGE 

IN  studying  the  literature  relating  to  the  Deluge,  we 
are  constantly  met  by  questions  as  to  its  so-called 
'  universality.'  Was  it  a  local  or  universal  Deluge 
and  if  universal  in  what  sense  so  ?  This  is  a  point 
in  which  neglect  or  ignorance  of  the  necessary 
physical  conditions  has  led  to  the  strangest  miscon- 
ceptions. 

It  is  obvious  that  there  are  four  senses  in  which  a 
catastrophe  like  the  Deluge  of  Noah  may  be  affirmed 
or  denied  to  have  been  universal. 

I.  It  may  have  been  universal  in  the  sense  of 
being  a  deep  stratum  of  water  covering  the  whole 
globe,  both  land  and  sea.  Such  universality  could 
not  have  been  in  the  mind  of  the  writer,  and  probably 
has  been  claimed  knowingly  by  no  writer  in  modern 
times.  Halley  in  the  last  century  understood  the 
conditions  of  such  universality,  though  he  seems  to 
have  supposed  that  the  impact  of  a  comet  might 
supply  the  necessary  water.  Owen  has  directed 
attention  to  the  fact  that  such  a  deluge  might  be  as 


152  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

fatal  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  waters  as  to  those  of 
the  land.  In  any  case,  such  universality  would 
demand  an  enormous  supply  of  water  from  some 
extra-terrestrial  source. 

2.  The  Deluge .  may  have  been  universal  in  the 
sense  of  being  a  submersion  of  the  whole  of  the  land, 
either  by  subsidence  or  by  elevation  of  the   ocean 
bed.     Such  a  state  of  things  may  have  existed   in 
primitive  geological  ages  before  our  continents  were 
elevated,  but  we  have  no  scientific  evidence  of  its 
recurrence  at  any  later  time,  though  large  portions  of 
the  continents  have  been  again  and  again  submerged. 
The  writers  of  Genesis  i.  arid  of  Psalm  civ.  seem  to 
have    known    of  no   such   total   submergence  since 
the  elevation  of  the  first  dry  land,  and  nothing  of 
this   kind  is  expressed  or  certainly  implied  in   the 
Deluge  story. 

3.  The   Deluge  may  have  been  universal  in  so 
far  as  man,  its  chief  object,  and  certain  animals  useful 
or  necessary  to  him,  are  concerned.     This  kind  of 
universality  would    seem    to   have   been    before   the 
mind  of  the  writer  when  he  says  that  '  Noah  only, 
and  they  who  were  with  him  in  the  ark,  remained 
alive.5 1 

4.  The  Deluge  may  have  been  universal  in  so  far 
is  the  area  and  observation  and  information  of  the 
narrator  extended.     The  story  is  evidently  told  in 
the  form  of  a  narrative  derived  from  eye-witnesses, 
and  this  form  seems  even  to  have   been  chosen  or 

1  Genesis  vii.  23. 


QUESTIONS  RESPECTING   THE  DELUGE    153 

retained  purposely  to  avoid  any  question  of  uni- 
versality of  the  first  and  second  kinds  referred  to 
above.  The  same  form  of  narrative  is  preserved  in 
the  Chaldean  legend.  This  fact  is  not  affected  by 
the  doctrine  held  by  some  of  the  schools  of  disin- 
tegrators, that  the  narrative  is  divisible  into  two 
documents,  respectively  'Jahvistic'  and  *  Elohistic.' 
I  have  elsewhere  l  shown  that  there  is  a  very  different 
reason  for  the  use  of  these  two  name?  of  God.  But 
if  there  were  two  original  witnesses  whose  statements 
were  put  together  by  an  editor,  this  surely  does  not 
invalidate  their  testimony  or  deprive  them  of  the 
right  to  have  it  understood  as  they  intended. 

It  is  thus  evident  that  the  whole  question  of 
'  universality '  is  little  more  than  a  mere  useless  logo- 
machy, having  no  direct  relation  to  the  facts  or  to  the 
credibility  of  the  narrative. 

There  are  also  in  connection  with  this  question  of 
universality  certain  scientific  and  historical  facts 
already  referred  to  which  we  may  again  summarise 
here,  and  which  are  essential  to  the  understanding  of 
the  question.  Nothing  is  more  certainly  known  in 
geology  than  that  at  the  close  of  the  later  tertiary 
or  pleistocene  age  the  continents  of  the  northern 
hemisphere  stood  higher  and  spread  their  borders 
more  widely  than  at  present.  In  this  period  also 
they  were  tenanted  by  a  very  grand  and  varied 
mammalian  fauna,  and  it  is  in  this  continental  age  of- 
the  later  pleistocene  or  early  modern  time  that  we 

1  Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands,  chap.  iv. 


154  GEOLOGY  AND    HISTORY 

find  the  first  unequivocal  evidence  of  man  as  existing 
on  various  parts  of  the  continents.  At  the  close  of 
this  period  occurred  changes,  whether  sudden  or 
gradual  we  do  not  know,  though  they  could  not  have 
occupied  a  very  long  time,  which  led  to  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  earliest  races  of  men  and  many  con- 
temporaneous animals.  That  these  changes  were  in 
part,  at  least,  of  the  nature  of  submergence  we  learn 
from  the  fact  that  our  present  continents  are  more 
sunken  or  less  elevated  out  of  the  water,  and  also 
from  the  deposit  of  superficial  gravels  and  other 
detritus  more  recent  than  the  pleistocene  over  their 
surfaces.  We  are  thus  shut  up  by  geological  facts  to 
the  belief  in  a  Deluge  geologically  modern  and  prac- 
tically universal. 

One  other  objection  to  the  Deluge  narrative 
perhaps  deserves  a  word  of  comment — that  urged 
against  the  statement  of  the  gradual  disappearance 
of  the  waters.  The  extraordinary  difficulty  is  raised 
respecting  this,  that  the  water  must  have  rushed  sea- 
ward in  a  furious  torrent.  The  objection  is  based 
apparently  on  the  idea  that  the  foundation  for  the 
original  narrative  was  a  river  inundation  in  the 
Mesopotamian  plain.  This  cannot  be  admitted  ;  but 
if  it  were,  the  objection  would  not  apply.  River 
inundations,  whether  of  the  Nile  or  Euphrates,  sub- 
side inch  by  inch,  not  after  the  manner  of  mountain 
torrents.  Thus  this  objection  is  another  instance  of 
difficulties  gratuitously  imported  into  the  history. 

In    point   of    fact   the    narrator    represents   the 


QUESTIONS  RESPECTING   THE  DELUGE     155 

Deluge  as  prevailing  for  a  whole  year,  which  would 
be  impossible  in  the  case  of  a  river  inundation.  He 
attributes  it  in  part,  at  least,  to  the  *  great  deep  '- 
that  is,  the  ocean  ;  and  he  represents  the  ark  as 
drifting  inland  or  toward  the  north.  Such  conditions 
can  be  satisfied  only  by  the  supposition  of  a  sub- 
sidence of  the  land  similar  in  kind,  at  least,  to  the 
great  post-glacial  flood  of  geology.  Partial  subsidences 
of  this  kind,  local  but  very  extreme,  have  occurred 
even  in  later  times,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  Runn  of 
Cutch,  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  delta  of 
the  Nile  ;  and  if  the  objectors  are  determined  to 
make  the  Deluge  of  Noah  very  local  and  more  recent 
than  the  post-glacial  flood,  it  would  be  more  rational 
to  refer  to  subsidences  like  those  just  mentioned,  and 
of  which  they  will  find  examples  in  Lyell's  Prin- 
ciples and  other  geological  books.  It  is,  however, 
decidedly  more  probable  that  Noah's  flood  is  identical 
with  that  which  destroyed  the  men  of  the  mammoth 
age,  the  palaeocosmic  or  '  palaeolithic  '  men  ; *  and  in 
that  case  the  recession  of  the  waters  would  probably 
be  gradual,  but  intermittent,  *  going  and  returning/ 
as  our  ancient  narrator  has  it ;  but  there  need  not 
have  been  any  violent  debacle. 

It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  a  submergence  of  the 
land  and  consequent  deluge  may  be  cataclysmic  or 
tranquil,  according  to  local  circumstances,  and  that  it 
may  have  been  locally  sudden,  while  for  the  whole 
world  it  was  gradual  and  of  longer  duration.  Such 

1  Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands>  chaps,  iii.  and  iv. 


156  GEOLOGY  AND   HISTORY 

differences  must  belong  to  all  great  submergences, 
which  may  in  one  place  produce  great  disturbance 
and  very  coarse  deposits,  in  another  may  be  quiet 
and  deposit  the  finest  silt.  Even  the  flood  of  a  river 
or  the  action  of  a  tide  admits  of  variations  of  this 
kind.  In  narrow  channels  the  great  tides  of  the 
Bay  of  Fundy  rush  as  torrents  ;  in  wide  bays  they 
creep  in  imperceptibly. 

The  traditions  and  Biblical  history  of  the  Deluge 
not  only  furnish  important  material  for  connecting 
the  geological  ages  with  the  period  of  human  history, 
and  for  enabling  us  to  realise  the  fact  that  early  man 
was  a  witness  of  some  of  the  later  physical  and  vital 
vicissitudes  that  have  passed  over  the  earth,  but  may 
be  correlated  with  other  ancient  traditions  which 
seem  at  first  sight  to  have  no  immediate  relation 
to  it. 

As  an  example,  I  may  refer  to  the  well-known 
Egyptian  fable  of  Atlantis,  which  may  be  a  remi- 
niscence of  early  man  in  the  second  continental 
period,  and  which  we  may,  perhaps,  even  connect 
with  the  Mexican  tradition  of  civilisation  reaching 
America  from  the  East1 

Plato  has  handed  down  to  us  a  circumstantial 
tradition,  derived  from  Egypt,  of  a  great  Atlantic 
continent  west  of  Europe,  once  thickly  peopled,  and 
the  seat  of  an  empire  that  was  dominant  over  the 
Mediterranean  regions.  This  continent,  or  island, 

1  It  is,  perhaps,  only  an  accident  that  Atl  is  the  Mexican  word 
for  water. 


QUESTIONS  RESPECTING    THE  DELUGE     157 

was  called  Atlantis,  and  it  had  been  submerged  with 
all  its  people  in  prehistoric  times.  This  tradition 
may  have  reference  to  certain  geological  facts  of  the 
early  modern  period  already  referred  to.  If  the 
Egyptian  tradition  really  extended  back  to  the  ante- 
diluvian period,  we  can  readily  understand  their 
belief  in  the  continent  of  Atlantis.  We  have  already 
ascertained  the  great  extension  in  that  period  of  the 
land  of  Western  Europe,  and  there  may  have  been 
outlying  insular  tracts  in  the  Atlantic  now  quite 
unknown  to  us.  These  lands  may  well  have  sustained 
nations  of  the  gigantic  Cro-magnon  race,  '  men  of 
renown,'  who,  when  their  westward  progress  was 
stayed  by  the  ocean,  and  they  were  checked  in  the 
north  by  the  increasing  cold,  may  have  turned  their 
arms  against  the  dwellers  on  the  Mediterranean 
coasts,  perhaps  in  the  age  immediately  preceding 
the  Deluge.  We  know  little  as  yet  of  the  history  of 
those  Horshesu,  or  children  of  Horus,  who  are  said 
to  have  preceded  the  historic  period  in  Egypt. 
There  must  have  been  Egyptian  literature  about 
these  people,  and  should  this  be  recovered  we  shall 
probably  learn  more  of  Atlantis.  In  the  meantime 
we  may,  at  least,  bring  the  tradition  of  that  perished 
continent  into  harmony  with  geology  and  history. 
I  may  add  that  we  need  not  consider  the  above  view 
as  at  variance  with  that  of  those  archaeologists  who, 
like  the  late  Sir  D.  Wilson,1  suppose  the  tradition  of 
Atlantis  to  have  been  founded  on  vague  intimations 
1  The  Lost  Atlantis,  1892. 


1 58  GEOLOGY  AND   HISTORY 

of  the  existence  of  America,  since  any  such  intima- 
tions which  reached  the  civilised  nations  of  Southern 
Europe  or  Africa  would  naturally  be  considered  as 
an  indication  that  some  part  of  the  lost  Atlantis  still 
continued  to  exist. 

In  still  another  direction  does  the  deluge  story 
connect  itself  with  physical  probabilities.  If  we 
examine  the  Atlantic  map  representing  the  soundings 
of  the  Challenger  expedition,  we  shall  find  evidence 
not  only  of  that  extension  of  land  in  temperate 
Western  Europe  which  may  have  originated  the 
story  of  Atlantis,  but  other  dispositions  of  land, 
especially  in  the  extreme  north  and  south,  which 
may  have  influenced  antediluvian  climate.  We  have 
reason  to  believe  that  in  the  second  continental 
period,  that  of  palaeocosmic  man,  Baffin's  Bay  may 
have  been  greatly  narrowed  and  Behring's  Straits 
entirely  closed,  while  large  tracts  of  land  existed 
around  Iceland  and  west  of  Norway.  There  would 
thus  be  almost  continuous  land  connection  around 
the  north  pole,  permitting  easy  extension  of  man 
and  of  hardy  animals.  There  would  also  be  much 
less  access  of  ice  to  the  North  Atlantic. 

At  the  same  time  in  another  region  there  was 
probably  a  land  connection  from  Florida  to  South 
America  by  the  Bahamas,  and  the  equatorial  current 
may  have  been  more  powerfully  deflected  northward 
than  now.  The  effect  would  be  to  produce  around 
the  North  Atlantic,  and  especially  on  the  eastern 
side,  a  golden  age  of  genial  climate,  fitted  to  early 


QUESTIONS  RESPECTING   THE  DELUGE    159 

man,  but  destined  as  time  went  on  and  geographical 
changes  proceeded,  preparatory  to  the  great  diluvial 
subsidence,  to  fade  away  into  the  cool  and  damp 
climate  of  the  later  post-glacial  or  antediluvian 
period.  This  again  would  lead  to  migrations,  wars, 
and  fierce  struggles  for  existence  among  the  human 
populations— a  time  of  anarchy  and  violence  pre- 
ceding the  final  catastrophe. 

Much  collateral  evidence  in  substantiation  of  these 
probabilities  can  be  collected  from  the  distribution  of 
marine  life  l  and  the  changes  of  level,  even  on  the 
American  coast.  They  conjure  up  before  us  strange 
visions  of  the  prehistoric  past,  and  of  the  vicissitudes 
of  which  man  himself  has  been  witness,  and  of 
which,  whether  through  memory  and  tradition  or  the 
revelation  of  God,  he  has  continued  to  retain  some 
written  records  which,  long  dim  and  uncertain,  are 
now  beginning  to  be  put  into  relation  with  physical 
facts  ascertained  by  modern  scientific  observation. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  Deluge  story  and 
the  fate  of  the  antediluvians  have  interwoven  them- 
selves with  the  myths  and  superstitions  of  the  Old 
World.  The  six  great  gods  of  the  Egyptian  pantheon 
represent  the  creative  days,  and  the  *  Sons  of  Horus  ' 
the  antediluvians.  So  we  have  the  ten  patriarchs  or 
kings  of  the  old  Chaldeans  corresponding  to  those  of 
Genesis,  and  the  heaven-defying  Titans  of  the  old 
mythologies  representing  the  giants  before  the  Flood. 
Perhaps,  however,  no  illustration  of  this  is  more 
1  See  The  Ice  Age  in  Canada,  by  the  author.  Montreal :  1893. 


i6o  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

patent  or  more  touching  than  that  well-known  one 
of  Ishtar,  the  Astarte  of  the  Syrians,  the  Artemis  of 
the  Greeks,  and  who  has  been  identified  with  the 
chief  female  divinity  of  many  other  ancient  nations* 
even  with  that  Diana  whom  'all  Asia  and  the 
inhabited  world  worshippeth.' 

The  Chaldean  deluge  tablets  for  the  first  time 
introduce  her  to  us  as  an  antediluvian  goddess,  and 
inform  us  that  she  is  the  deified  mother  of  men,  the 
same  with  the  Biblical  Isha,  or  Eve.  In  the  crisis  of 
the  Deluge  we  are  told,  *  Ishtar  spoke  like  a  little 
child,  the  great  goddess  pronounced  her  discourse. 
Behold  how  mankind  has  returned  to  clay.  I  am 
the  mother  who  brought  forth  men>  and  like  the  fishes 
they  fill  the  sea.  The  gods  because  of  the  angels  of 
the  abyss  are  weeping  with  me.'  Ishtar  is  thus  the 
mother  of  men,  herself  deified  and  gone  into  the 
heavens,  but  even  there  mourning  over  her  hapless 
children.  She  may  be  a  star-goddess,  or  the  moon 
may  be  her  emblem  ;  but  for  all  that  she  appears  in 
this  old  legend  as  a  deified  human  mother, -with  a 
mother's  heart  yearning  over  the  progeny  that  had 
sprung  from  her  womb,  and  had  been  nourished  in 
her  breast.  It  was  this,  more  than  her  crescent  or 
starry  diadem,  that  commended  her  worship  to  her 
children.  Her  representative  in  Genesis,  the  first 
mother,  Isha,  or  Eve,  is  no  goddess,  but  a  woman. 
Yet  is  she  the  emblem  of  life  and  the  mother  of  a 
promised  Redeemer  of  humanity,  who  is  to  undo  the 
results  of  sin  and  to  restore  the  Paradise  of  God 


QUESTIONS  RESPECTING   THE  DELUGE    161 

bruising  the  head  of  the  great  serpent  who,  in  the 
Chaldean  as  in  the  Hebrew  story,  represents  the 
power  of  evil.  Ishtar  has  been  represented  as  the 
bride  of  the  god  Tammuz,  the  Adonis  l  of  the  Greeks, 
and  whose  worship  was  one  of  the  idolatries  that  led 
the  women  of  Israel  astray, '  weeping  for  Tammuz ' ; 2 
but  it  now  appears  that,  according  to  the  oldest 
doctrine,  she  is  his  mother,3  and  he  was  a  '  keeper 
of  sheep/  dwelling  in  Eden,  or  Idinu,  and  murdered 
by  his  brother  Adar,  who  is  also  a  god,  and  more 
especially  the  god  of  war.  In  short,  the  story  of 
Ishtar,  Tammuz,  and  Adar,  the  parent  of  so  many 
myths,  is  merely  the  familiar  one  of  Cain  and  Abel. 
Hence  the  belief  that  the  murder  of  Tammuz  was 
connected  with  the  Deluge,  and  henge  the  annual 
lamentation  of  the  women  for  Tammuz  when  the 
spring  inundations  swelled  and  reddened  the  waters 
of  the  streams — a  rite  possibly  even  antediluvian, 
and  commemorative  of  the  mourning  of  the  first 
mother  for  her  slain  son,  to  rescue  whom  it  was 
fabled  that  she  even  descended  into  Hades. 

Oppert  regards  the  legend  of  Tammuz  and  Ishtar 
as  a  solar  myth,  and  supposes  that  the  story  of  Cain 
and  Abel  was  based  on  it.  But  a  family  history  of 
crime  and  sorrow  is  a  much  more  real  and  probable 
thing  as  a  basis  for  tradition  than  a  solar  myth,  and 
naturalists  at  least  will  be  disposed  to  invert  the 
theory,  and  to  believe  that  the  simple  Bible  story  was 

1  From  the  Semitic  title  '  Adonai,'  my  Lord. 

2  Ezekiel  viii.  14.  3  Sayce,  Hibbert  Lectures. 

L 


162  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

the  foundation  of  all  the  varied  cults  and  superstitions 
that  clustered  round  Ishtar  and  Tammuz,  as  well  as 
personages  like  Osiris  and  Isis,  who  seem  to  have 
been  later  avatars,  or  revivals  of  the  same  tale. 

It  would  be  easy  to  show  that  the  deluge  story  has 
intimate  connections  with  other  ancient  myths  and 
superstitions,  as  well  as  with  the  results  of  modern 
archaeology  and  geology.  But  were  this  all,  our 
inquiry,  however  interesting  and  curious,  would  have 
little  practical  value.  It  has  two  important  bearings 
on  the  present  time.  Christianity  bases  itself,  its 
founder  Himself  being  witness,  on  the  early  chapters 
of  Genesis,  as  history  and  prophecy,  and  the  treat- 
ment which  these  ancient  and  inspired  records  have 
met  with  in  modern  times  at  the  hands  of  destruc- 
tive criticism  is  doing  its  worst  in  aid  of  the  anti- 
Christian  tendencies  of  our  time.  To  remove  the 
doubts  that  have  been  cast  on  these  old  records  is 
therefore  a  clear  gain  to  the  highest  interests  of 
humanity,  and  if  theology  and  philology  are  unable 
to  secure  this  benefit,  natural  science  may  well  step 
forward  to  lend  its  aid.  Another  connection  with 
present  interests  depends  on  the  fact  that,  while 
superstitions  akin  to  that  which  deified  the  mother  of 
the  promised  seed,  and  introduced  the  world-wide 
cults  of  Astarte  and  Aphrodite,  still  reign  over  great 
masses  of  men,  absolute  materialism  and  desperate 
struggle  for  existence  among  men  and  nations  are 
growing  and  extending  themselves  as  never  before 
since  the  antediluvian  times,  and  are  provoking  a 


QUESTIONS  RESPECTING   THE  DELUGE    163 

like  signal  and  direful  vengeance.  In  the  midst  of 
all  this,  Christians  look  forward  to  the  second  coming 
of  Jesus  Christ  to  destroy  the  powers  of  evil  and  to 
inaugurate  a  better  time ;  and  it  was  He  who  said, 
'  As  it  came  to  pass  in  the  days  of  Noah,  even  so 
shall  it  be  in  the  days  of  the  Son  of  Man.'  Let  us 
remember  the  old  story  of  the  flood  of  Noah  lest  those 
days  come  on  us  unawares. 


i  2 


i64  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE  PREHISTORIC  AND  HISTORIC  IN  THE  EAST 

THE  term  prehistoric  was  first  used  by  my  friend  Sir 
Daniel  Wilson  in  his  Prehistoric  Annals  of  Scotland. 
It  was  intended  to  express  'the  whole  period  dis- 
closed to  us  by  archaeological  evidence  as  distin- 
guished from  what  is  known  by  written  records/  As 
Wilson  himself  reminds  us,  the  term  has  no  definite 
chronological  significance,  since  historic  records,  pro- 
perly so-called,  extend  back  in  different  places  to 
very  different  times.  With  reference,  for  example, 
to  the  Chaldean  and  Hebrew  peoples,  if  we  take 
their  written  records  as  history,  this  extends  back 
to  the  Deluge  at  least.  Written  history  in  Egypt 
reaches  to  at  least  3000  years  B.C.,  while  in  Britain 
it  extends  no  farther  than  to  the  landing  of  Julius 
Caesar,  and  in  America  to  the  first  voyage  of  Colum- 
bus. In  Palestine  we  possess  written  records  back 
to  the  time  of  Abraham,  but  these  relate  mainly  to 
the  Hebrew  people.  Of  the  populations  which  pre- 
ceded the  Abrahamic  immigration,  those  *  Canaanites 
who  were  already  in  the  land,'  we  have  little  history 


THE  PREHISTORIC  EAST  165 

before  the  Exodus,  except  the  remarkable  letters 
recently  unearthed  at  Tel-el-Amarna,  in  Egypt.  In 
Egypt  we  have  very  early  records  of  the  dwellers  on 
the  Nile,  but  of  the  Arabian  and  African  peoples, 
whom  they  called  Pun  and  Kesh,  and  the  Asiatic 
peoples,  whom  they  knew  as  Cheta  and  Hyksos,  we 
have  till  lately  known  little  more  than  their  names 
and  the  representations  of  them  on  Egyptian  monu- 
ments. In  both  countries  there  may  be  unsounded 
depths  of  unwritten  history  before  the  first  Egyptian 
dynasty,  and  before  the  Abrahamic  clan  crossed  the 
Jordan. 

What,  then,  in  Egypt  and  Palestine  may  be  re- 
garded as  prehistoric?  I  would  answer — (i)  The 
geographical  and  other  conditions  of  these  countries 
immediately  before  the  advent  of  man.  (2)  The 
evidence  which  they  afford  of  the  existence,  habits, 
and  history  of  man  in  periods  altogether  antecedent 
to  any  written  history,  except  such  notes  as  we  have 
in  the  Bible  and  elsewhere  as  to  the  so-called  ante- 
diluvian world.  (3)  The  facts  gleaned  by  archaeo- 
logical evidence  as  to  tribes  known  to  us  by  no 
records  of  their  own,  but  only  by  occasional  notices 
in  the  history  or  monuments  of  other  peoples.  In 
Egypt  and  Palestine  such  peoples  as  the  Hyksos,  the 
Anakim,  the  Amalekites,  the  Hittites,  and  Amorites 
are  of  this  kind,  though  contemporary  with  historic 
peoples. 

Prehistoric  annals  may  thus,  in  these  countries, 
embrace  a  wide  scope,  and  may  introduce  us  to  un- 


166  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

expected  facts  and  questions  respecting  primitive 
humanity.  I  propose  in  the  present  chapter  to  direct 
attention  to  some  points  which  may  be  regarded 
as  definitely  ascertained  in  so  far  as  archaeological 
evidence  can  give  any  certainty,  though  I  cannot 
pretend,  in  so  limited  a  space,  to  enter  into  details  as 
to  their  evidence. 

Before  proceeding,  I  may  refer  by  way  of  illustra- 
tion to  another  instance  brought  into  very  promi- 
nent relief  by  the  publication  of  Schuchardt's  work 
on  Schliemann's  excavations.  We  all  know  how 
shadowy  and  unreal  to  our  youthful  minds  were  the 
Homeric  stories  of  the  heroic  age  of  Greece,  and  our 
faith  and  certainty  were  not  increased  when  we  read 
in  the  works  of  learned  German  critics  that  the 
Homeric  poems  were  composite  productions  of  an 
age  much  later  than  that  to  which  they  were  sup- 
posed to  belong,  and  that  their  events  were  rather 
myths  than  history.  How  completely  has  all  this 
been  changed  by  the  discoveries  of  Schliemann  and 
his  followers !  Now  we  can  stand  on  the  very 
threshold  over  which  Priam  and  Hector  walked. 
We  can  see  the  jewels  that  may  have  adorned  Helen 
or  Andromache.  We  can  see  double-handled  cups 
like  that  of  old  Nestor,  and  can  recognise  the  inlaid 
work  of  the  shield  of  Achilles,  and  can  walk  in  the 
halls  of  Agamemnon.  Thus  the  old  Homeric  heroes 
become  real  men,  as  those  of  our  time,  and  we  can 
understand  their  political  and  commercial  relations 
with  other  old  peoples  before  quite  as  shadowy. 


THE  PREHISTORIC  EAST  167 

Recent  discoveries  in  Egypt  take  us  still  farther 
back.  We  now  find  that  the  *  Hanebu/  who  invaded 
Egypt  in  the  days  of  the  Hebrew  patriarchs,  were 
prehistoric  Greeks,  already  civilised,  and  probably 
possessing  letters  ages  before  the  date  of  the  Trojan 
War.  So  it  is  with  the  Bible  history,  when  we  see 
the  contemporary  pictures  of  the  Egyptian  slaves 
toiling  at  their  bricks,  or  when  we  stand  in  the 
presence  of  the  mummy  of  Rameses  II.  and  know 
that  we  look  on  the  face  of  the  Pharaoh  who  en- 
slaved the  Hebrews,  and  from  whose  presence  Moses 
fled. 

Such  discoveries  give  reality  to  history,  and 
similar  discoveries  are  daily  carrying  us  back  to  old 
events,  and  to  nations  of  whom  there  was  no  history 
whatever,  and  are  making  them  like  our  daily  friends 
and  companions.  A  notable  case  is  that  of  the 
children  of  Heth,  known  to  us  only  incidentally  by 
a  few  members  of  the  nation  who  came  in  contact 
with  the  early  Hebrews.  Suddenly  we  found  that 
these  people  were  the  great  and  formidable  Kheta, 
or  Khatti,  who  contended  on  equal  terms  with  the 
Egyptians  and  Assyrians  for  the  empire  of  Western 
Asia ;  and  when  we  began  to  look  for  their  remains, 
there  appeared,  one  after  another,  stone  monuments, 
seals,  and  engraved  objects,  recording  their  form  and 
their  greatness,  till  the  tables  have  quite  been  turned, 
and  there  is  danger  that  we  may  attach  too  much  im- 
portance to  their  agency  in  times  of  which  we  have 
scarcely  any  written  history.  Thus,  just  as  the 


168  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

quarry  and  the  mine  reveal  to  us  the  fossil  remains 
of  animals  and  plants  great  in  their  time,  but  long 
since  passed  away,  so  do  the  spade  and  pick  of  the 
excavator  constantly  turn  up  for  us  the  bones  and 
the  works  of  a  fossil  and  prehistoric  humanity. 

Egypt  may  be  said  to  have  no  prehistoric  period 
and  our  task  with  it  will  be  limited  to  showing  that 
its  written  history  scarcely  goes  back  as  far  as  many 
Egyptologists  suppose  and  confidently  affirm,  and 
that  beyond  this  it  has  as  yet  afforded  nothing. 
Egypt,  in  short,  old  though  it  seems,  is  really  a  new 
country.  When  its  priests,  according  to  Plato,  taunted 
Solon  with  the  newness  of  the  Greeks  and  referred  to 
the  old  western  empire  of  Atlantis,  they  were  probably 
trading  on  traditions  of  antediluvian  times,  which  had 
no  more  relation  to  the  actual  history  of  the  Egyptian 
people  than  to  that  of  the  Greeks. 

The  limestones  and  sandstones  which  bound  the 
Nile  valley,  sometimes  rising  in  precipitous  cliffs 
from  the  bank  of  the  stream,  sometimes  receding  for 
many  miles  beyond  the  edge  of  the  green  alluvial 
plain,  are  rocks  formed  in  cretaceous  and  early  tertiary 
times  under  the  sea,  when  all  Northern  Africa  and 
Western  Asia  were  beneath  the  ocean.  When  raised 
from  the  sea-bed  to  form  land,  they  were  variously 
bent  and  fractured,  and  the  Nile  valley  occupies  a 
rift  or  fault,  which,  lying  between  the  hard  ridges  of 
the  Arabian  hills  on  the  east  and  the  more  gentle 
elevations  of  the  Nubian  desert  on  the  west,  afforded 
an  outlet  for  the  waters  of  interior  Africa  and  for  the 


THE  PREHISTORIC  MAST  169 

great  floods  which  in  the  rainy  season  pour  down  from 
the  mountains  of  Abyssinia. 

This  outlet  has  been  available  and  has  been  in 
process  of  erosion  by  running  water  from  a  period 
long  anterior  to  the  advent  of  man,  and  with  this 
early  prehuman  history  belonging  to  the  miocene 
and  pliocene  periods  of  geology  we  have  no  need  to 
meddle,  except  to  state  that  it  was  closed  by  a  great 
subsidence,  that  of  the  pleistocene  or  glacial  period, 
when  the  land  of  North  Africa  and  Western  Asia 
was  depressed  several  hundred  feet,  when  Africa  was 
separated  from  Asia,  when  the  Nile  valley  was  an 
arm  of  the  sea,  and  when  sea-shells  were  deposited  on 
the  rising  grounds  of  Lower  Egypt  at  a  height  of  two 
hundred  feet  or  more.1  Such  raised  beaches  are  found 
not  only  in  the  Nile  valley  but  on  the  shores  of  the 
Red  Sea,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  along  the  coast  of 
Palestine  ;  but,  so  far  as  known,  no  remains  of  man 
have  been  found  in  connection  with  them.  This 
great  depression  must,  however,  geologically  speaking, 
have  been  not  much  earlier  than  the  advent  of  man, 
since  m  many  parts  of  the  world  we  find  human  re- 
mains in  deposits  of  the  next  succeeding  era. 

This  next  period,  that  known  to  geologists  as  the 
post-glacial  or  early  modern,  was  characterised  by 
an  entire  change  of  physical  conditions.  The  con- 
tinents of  the  northern  hemisphere  were  higher  and 

1  Hull,  Geology  of  Palestine  and  adjacent  Districts,  Palestine 
Exploration  Fund.  Dawson,  Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands,  p.  311 
and  Appendix.  References  will  be  found  in  these  works  to  the  labours 
of  Fraas,  Schweinfurth,  and  others. 


170  GEOLOGY  AND  HTSTORY 

wider  than  now.  The  details  of  this  we  have  already 
considered,  and  have  seen  that  at  this  time  the 
Mediterranean  was  divided  into  two  basins,  and  a 
broad  fringe  of  low  land,  now  submerged,  lay  around 
its  eastern  end.  This  was  the  age  of  those  early 
palaeolithic  or  palseocosmic  men  whose  remains  are 
found  in  the  caverns  and  gravels  of  Europe  and  Asia. 
What  was  the  condition  of  Egypt  at  this  time  ?  The 
Nile  must  have  been  flowing  in  its  valley  ;  but  there 
was  probably  a  waterfall  or  cataract  at  Silsilis  in 
Upper  Egypt,  and  rapids  lower  down,  and  the  alluvial 
plain  was  much  less  extensive  than  now  and  forest- 
clad,  while  the  river  seems  to  have  been  unable  to 
reach  the  Mediterranean  and  to  have  turned  abruptly 
eastward,  discharging  into  a  lake  where  the  Isthmus 
of  Suez  now  is,  and  probably  running  thence  into  the 
Red  Sea,  so  that  at  this  time  the  waters  of  the  Nile 
approached  very  near  to  those  of  the  Jordan,  a  fact 
which  accounts  for  that  similarity  of  their  modern 
fauna  which  has  been  remarked  by  so  many  naturalists. 
I  have  myself  collected  in  the  deposits  of  this  old 
lake,  near  Ismailia,  fresh-water  shells  of  kinds  now 
living  in  the  Upper  Nile.  If  at  this  time  men  visited 
the  Nile  valley,  they  must  have  been  only  a  few  bold 
hunters  in  search  of  game,  and  having  their  permanent 
homes  on  the  Mediterranean  plains  now  submerged. 

If  they  left  any  remains  we  should  find  these  in 
caverns  or  rock  shelters,  or  in  the  old  gravels  belonging 
to  this  period  which  here  and  there  project  through 
the  alluvial  plain.  At  one  of  these  places,  Jebel 


THE  PREHISTORIC  EAST  iji 

Assart,  near  Thebes,  General  Pitt-Rivers  has  satisfied 
himself  of  the  occurrence  of  flint  chips  which  may 
have  been  of  human  workmanship  ; l  but  after  a  day's 
collecting  at  the  spot,  I  failed  to  convince  myself 
that  the  numerous  flint  flakes  in  the  gravel  were 
other  than  accidental  fragments.  If  they  really  are 
flint  knives  they  are  older  than  the  period  we  are 
now  considering,  and  must  be  much  older  than  the 
first  dynasty  of  the  Egyptian  historic  kings.2  These 
gravels  were  indeed,  in  early  Egyptian  times,  so 
consolidated  that  tombs  were  excavated  in  them. 
Independently  of  this  case,  I  know  of  no  trustworthy 
evidence  of  the  residence  of  the  earliest  men  in  Egypt 
Yet  we  know  that  at  this  time  rude  hunting  tribes 
had  spread  themselves  over  Western  Asia,  and  over 
Europe  as  far  as  the  Atlantic,  and  were  slaying  the 
mammoth,  the  hairy  rhinoceros,  the  wild  horse,  and 
other  animals  now  extinct.  They  were  the  so-called 
4  palaeolithic '  or  historically  antediluvian  men,  be- 
longing, like  the  animals  they  hunted,  to  extinct 
races,  quite  dissimilar  physically  from  the  historical 
Egyptians.  And  yet  in  a  recent  review  of  the  late 
Miss  Edwards's  charming  work,  Pharaohs,  Fellahs^ 
and  Explorers,  she  was  taken  to  task  by  an  eminent 
Egyptologist  for  statements  similar  to  the  above. 
On  the  evidence  of  two  additional  finds  of  flint 
implements  on  the  surface,  he  affirms  the  existence 

1  Journal  of  Archceo  7ogical  Society,  188 1.    Haynes's  Journal  of  tht 
American  Academy  of  Sciences. 

2  Dawson,  Egypt  and  Syria,  p.  149. 


17*  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

of  man  in  Egypt  at  a  time  when  'the  Arabian 
deserts  were  covered  with  verdure  and  intersected 
by  numerous  streams/  that  is,  geologically  speaking, 
in  the  early  pleistocene  or  pliocene  period,  or  even 
in  the  miocene ! 

Singularly  enough,  therefore,  Egypt  is  to  the 
prehistoric  annalist  not  an  old  country — less  old 
indeed  than  France  and  England,  in  both  of  which 
we  find  evidence  of  the  residence  of  the  palaeolithic 
cave  men  of  the  mammoth  age.  Thus,  when  we  go 
beyond  local  history  into  the  prehistoric  past,  our 
judgment  as  to  the  relative  age  of  countries  may  be 
strangely  reversed. 

It  is  true  that  in  Egypt,  as  in  most  other  coun- 
tries, flint  flakes,  or  other  worked  flints,  are  common 
on  the  surface  and  in  the  superficial  soil  ;  but  there  is 
no  good  evidence  that  they  did  not  belong  to  historic 
times.  A  vivid  light  has  been  thrown  on  this  point 
by  Petrie's  discovery,  in  debris  attributed  to  the  age 
of  the  twelfth  dynasty,  or  approximately  that  of  the 
Hebrew  patriarchs,  of  a  wooden  sickle  of  the  ordi- 
nary shape,  but  armed  with  flint  flakes  serrated  at 
their  edges,1  though  the  handle  is  beautifully  curved 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  a  better  and  more  con- 
venient hold  than  with  those  now  in  use.  This 
primitive  implement  presents  to  us  the  Egyptian 
farmer  of  that  age  reaping  his  fields  of  wheat  and 
barley  with  implements  similar  to  those  of  the  palaeo- 
cosmic  men.  No  doubt,  at  the  same  time,  he  used  a 

1  Kahun  and  Garob,  Egyptian  Exploration  Fund  publications. 


THE  PREHISTORIC  EAST  173 

harrow  armed  with  rude  flints,  and  may  have  used 
flint  flakes  for  cutting  wood  or  for  pointing  his 
arrows.  Yet  he  was  a  member  of  a  civilised  and 
highly-organised  nation,  which  could  execute  great 
works  of  canalisation  and  embankment,  and  could 
construct  tombs  and  temples  that  have  not  since 
been  surpassed.  Can  we  doubt  that  the  common 
people  in  Palestine  and  other  neighbouring  countries 
were  equally  in  the  flint  age,  or  be  surprised  that, 
somewhat  later,  Joshua  used  flint  knives  to  circum- 
cise the  Israelites  ?  l  How  remarkable  are  these  links 
of  connection  between  early  Eastern  civilisation  and 
the  stone  age !  and  they  relate  to  mere  flakes,  such 
as  if  found  separately  might  be  styled  *  palaeolithic.' 

In  accordance  with  all  this,  when  we  examine  the 
tenants  of  the  oldest  Egyptian  tombs,  who  are  known 
to  us  by  their  sculptured  statues  and  their  carved  and 
painted  portraits,  we  find  them  to  be  the  same  with 
the  Egyptians  of  historic  times,  and  not  very  dis- 
similar from  the  modern  Copts,  and  we  also  find  that 
their  arts  and  civilisation  were  not  very  unlike  those 
of  comparatively  late  date. 

There  are,  however,  some  points  in  which  the  early 
condition  of  even  historic  Egypt  was  different  from 
the  present  or  from  anything  recorded  in  written 
history. 

I  have  elsewhere  endeavoured,  with  the  aid  of  my 
friend  Dr.  Schweinfurth,  to  restore  the  appearance  of 
the  Nile  valley  when  first  visited  by  man  in  the  post- 

1  Joshua  v.  2,  marginal  reading. 


174  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

diluvial  period.  It  was  then  probably  densely  wooded 
with  forests  similar  to  those  in  the  modern  Soudan, 
and  must  have  swarmed  with  animal  life  in  the  air,  on 
the  land,  and  in  the  water,  including  many  formidable 
and  dangerous  beasts.  On  the  other  hand,  to  a  people 
derived  from  the  Euphratean  plains  and  accustomed 
to  irrigation,  it  must  have  seemed  a  very  garden  of 
the  Lord  in  its  fertility  and  resources. 

There  is  good  reason  to  credit  the  Egyptian  tradi- 
tions that  the  first  colonists  crossed  over  from  Southern 
Arabia  by  the  Red  Sea  from  that  land  of  Pun  to  which 
the  Egyptians  attributed  their  theology,  and  settled 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Abydos,  and  that  they  made 
their  way  thence  to  the  northward,  at  a  time  when 
the  delta  was  yet  a  mere  swamp,1  and  when  they  had 
slowly  to  extend  their  cultivation  in  Lower  Egypt  by 
dikes  and  canals.  If  we  ask  when  the  first  immi- 
grants arrived,  we  are  met  by  the  most  extravagantly 
varied  estimates,  derived  mainly  from  attempts  to 
deduce  a  chronology  from  the  dynastic  lists  of 
Egyptian  kings.  That  these  are  very  uncertain,  and 
in  part  duplicated,  is  now  generally  understood,  but 
still  there  is  a  tendency  to  ask  for  a  time  far  exceed- 
ing that  for  which  we  have  any  good  warrant  in 
authentic  history  elsewhere.  Herodotus  estimated 
the  time  necessary  for  the  deposition  of  the  mud  of 
the  delta  at  20,000  years ;  but  if  we  assume  that 
this  deposit  has  been  formed  since  the  land  approxi- 
mately attained  to  its  present  level,  allowing  for 

1  Herodotus,  Book  II.  chap.  15. 


THE  PREHISTORIC  EAST  175 

some  subsidence  in  the  delta  in  consequence  of  the 
weight  of  sediment,  and  estimating  the  average  rate 
of  deposition  at  one-fifteenth  of  an  inch  per  annum, 
which  is  as  low  an  amount  as  can  probably  be 
assumed,  we  shall  have  numbers  ranging  from  5,300 
to  about  7,000  years  for  the  lapse  of  time  since  the 
delta  was  a  bay  of  the  Mediterranean. 

It  is  true  that  the  recent  borings  in  the  delta, 
under  the  officers  of  the  British  Engineers,  have 
shown  a  great  depth  in  some  places  without  reaching 
the  original  bottom  of  the  old  bay.  Some  geologists 
have  accordingly  inferred  from  this  a  much  greater 
age  for  the  deposit  than  that  above  stated,1  and  in 
this  they  are  in  one  respect  justified  ;  but  they  have 
to  bear  in  mind  that  only  the  upper  part  of  the 
material  belongs  to  the  modern  period.  A  vast  thick- 
ness is  due  to  the  pleistocene  and  pliocene  ages,  when 
the  Nile  was  cutting  out  its  valley  and  depositing  the 
excavated  material  in  the  sea  at  its  mouth.  A  careful 
examination  of  the  borings  proves  by  their  composi- 
tion that  this  is  actually  the  case.2  Geologists  who 
have  been  guided  by  these  facts  in  their  estimates  of 
time  have  been  taunted  as  affirming  that  a  great 
diluvial  catastrophe  occurred  while  quiet  government 
and  civilised  life  were  going  on  in  Egypt.  The 
evidence  for  this  early  date  of  Egyptian  colonisation 
of  the  Nile  valley  is,  as  everyone  knows,  doubtful, 

1  Judid,  Report  to  Royal  Society,  1885. 

2  Modern  Science  in  Bible  Lands,  where  evidence  of  similar  dates 
fa  other  countries  is  stated. 


i?6  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

and  it  might  be  retorted  that  archaeologists  represent 
the  Egyptian  government  as  dating  from  a  period 
when  the  Nile  valley  was  an  inland  district,  and 
when  the  centres  of  human  population  must  have 
been,  principally  at  least,  on  lands  now  submerged. 

As  an  example  of  the  fanciful  way  in  which  this 
subject  is  sometimes  treated,  I  may  cite  the  fabulous 
antiquity  attributed  to  the  great  sphinx  of  Gizeh. 
We  are  told  that  it  is  the  most  ancient  monument  in 
Egypt,  antedating  the  pyramids,  and  belonging  to  the 
time  of  the  mystic  *  Horshesu,'  or  people  of  Horus,  of 
Egyptian  tradition.  In  one  sense  this  is  true,  since 
the  sphinx  is  merely  an  undisturbed  mass  of  the 
eocene  limestone  of  the  plateau.  But  its  form  must 
have  been  given  to  it  after  the  surrounding  limestone 
was  quarried  away  by  the  builders  of  the  pyramids, 
and  consequently  long  after  the  founding  of  Mem- 
phis by  the  first  Egyptian  king  Mena.  The  sphinx 
is,  in  short,  a  block  of  stone  left  by  the  quarry  men, 
and  probably  shaped  by  them  as  an  appropriate 
monument  to  the  workmen  who  died  while  the 
neighbouring  pyiamids  were  being  built.  A  similar 
monument,  of  immensely  greater  antiquity  from  a 
geological  point  of  view,  exists  near  Montreal,  in  a 
huge  boulder  of  Laurentian  gneiss,  placed  on  a 
pedestal  by  the  workmen  employed  on  the  Victoria 
Bridge,  in  memory  of  immigrants  who  died  of  ship 
fever  in  the  years  when  the  bridge  was  being  built. 

It  follows  from  all  this  that  the  monumental  his- 
tory of  Egypt,  extending  to  about  3000  years  B.C., 


THE  PREHISTORIC  EAST  177 

gives  us  the  whole  story  of  the  country,  unless 
some  chance  memorial  of  a  population  belonging  to 
the  post-glacial  age  should  in  future  be  found.  There 
are,  however,  things  in  Egypt  which  illustrate  pre- 
historic times  in  other  countries,  and  some  of  these 
have  lately  thrown  a  new  and  strange  light  on  the 
early  history  of  Palestine,  and  especially  on  the  Bible 
history. 

One  of  the  kings  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty, 
whose  historical  position  was  probably  between  the 
time  of  Joseph  and  that  of  Moses,  Amunoph  III.,  is 
believed  to  have  married  an  Asiatic  wife,  and  under 
her  influence,  he  and  his  successor,  Amunoph  IV.,  or 
Khu  en-Aten,  seem  to  have  swerved  from  the  old 
polytheism  of  Egypt,  and  introduced  a  new  worship, 
that  of  Aten,.  a  god  visibly  represented  by  the  disk 
of  the  sun,  and,  therefore,  in  some  sense  identical 
with  Ra,  the  chief  god  of  Egypt ;  but  there  was 
something  in  this  new  worship  offensive  to  the  priests 
of  Ra.  Perhaps  it  was  regarded  as  a  Semitic  or 
Asiatic  innovation,  or  led  to  the  introduction  of  un- 
popular Semitic  priests  and  officers.  Amunoph  IV. 
consequently  abandoned  the  royal  residence  at 
Thebes,  and  established  a  new  capital  at  a  place 
now  called  Tel-el-Amarna,  almost  at  the  boundary 
of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  and  from  this  place  he 
ruled  not  only  Egypt  but  a  vast  region  in  Western 
Asia,  which  had  been  subjected  to  the  Egyptian 
government  in  the  re'gn  of  the  third  Amunoph. 
From  these  subject  districts,  extending  from  the 

M 


1 78  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

frontiers  of  Egypt  to  xAsia  Minor  on  the  north,  and 
to  the  Euphrates  on  the  east,  came  great  numbers  of 
despatches  to  the  Pharaoh,  and  these  were  written 
not  on  papyrus  or  skin,  but  on  tablets  of  clay  har- 
dened by  baking,  and  the  writing  was  not  that  of 
Egypt,  but  the  arrow-head  script  of  Chaldea,  which 
seems  at  this  time  to  have  been  the  current  writing 
throughout  Western  Asia.1 

The  scribes  of  the  Egyptian  king  read  these  docu- 
ments, answered  them  as  directed  by  their  master, 
docketed  them,  and  laid  them  up  for  reference  ;  and, 
strange  to  say,  a  few  years  ago,  Arabs,  digging  in 
the  old  mounds,  brought  them  to  light,  and  we  have 
before  us,  translated  into  English,  a  great  number 
of  letters,  written  from  cities  of  Palestine  and  its 
vicinity  about  a  hundred  years  before  the  Exodus, 
and  giving  us  word-pictures  of  the  politics  and  con- 
flicts of  the  Canaanites  and  Hittites  and  other 
peoples,  long  before  Joshua  came  in  contact  with 
them.  Among  other  things  in  this  correspondence, 
we  find  remarkable  confirmation  of  the  sacred  and 
political  influence  of  Jerusalem,  which  the  Bible  pre- 
sents to  us  in  the  widely  separated  stories  of  Mel- 
chisedec,  king  of  Salem,  in  the  time  of  Abraham, 

1  It  is  possible,  however,  that  it  may  really  have  been  a  language 
of  diplomacy  merely,  and  may  have  been  used  by  the  Semitic  agents 
of  Amunoph  as  a  cipher  to  communicate  with  the  Egyptian  court, 
and  which  could  not  be  read  by  messengers  or  enemies  acquainted 
only  with  Hittite  or  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  or  with  the  Phoenician 
characters.  For  a  similar  case  see  2  Kings  xviii.  26. 


THE  PREHISTORIC  EAST  179. 

and  of  the  suzerainty  of  Adonizedec,  king  of  Jeru- 
salem, in  the  time  of  Joshua. 

At  the  time  in  question,  Jerusalem  was  ruled  by 
a  king  or  chief,  subject  to  Egypt,  but,  as  in  the  times 
of  Abraham  and  Joshua,  exercising  some  headship 
over  neighbouring  cities.  He  complains  of  certain 
hostile  peoples  called  chabiri>  a  name  supposed  by 
Zimmel1  to  be  equivalent  to  Ibrim  or  Hebrews,  which 
to  some  may  seem  strange,  as  the  Israelites  were, 
according  to  the  generally  received  chronology,  at 
this  time  in  Egypt.  We  must  bear  in  mind,  how- 
ever, that  according  to  the  Bible  the  Israelites  were 
not  the  only  'children  of  Eber.'  The  Edomites, 
Moabites,  Ammonites,  Ishmaelites,  and  Midianites 
were  equally  entitled  to  this  name ;  and  we  know, 
from  the  second  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  that  these 
were  warlike  and  intrusive  peoples,  who  had,  before 
the  Exodus,  dispossessed  several  native  tribes,  so 
that  we  do  not  wonder  at  the  fact  that  a  king  of 
Jerusalem  might  have  been  suffering  from  their 
attacks  long  before  the  Exodus.2  It  may  be  noted 
incidentally  here,  that  this  wide  application  of  the  term 
Hebrew  accords  with  the  use  of  the  name  Aperiu 
for  Semitic  peoples  other  than  Israelites  in  Egypt 

1  Inaugural  Lecture,    Halle,    1891.     Possibly  these   people   were 
merely  '  confederate  '  Hittites  and  Amorites(Sayce,  Records  of  the  Past). 

2  I  cannot  agree  with  Conder  that  the  Exodus  took  place  as  early 
as  the  time  of  Amunoph  III.     The  evidence  we  have  from  Egyptian 
sources  plainly  indicates  one  of  the  immediate  successors  of  Rameses  II. 
as  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus. 

M   2 


i8o  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

We  have  here  also  a  note  on  an  obscure  passage 
in  the  life  of  Moses,  namely,  his  apparent  want  of 
acquaintance  with  the  name  Jehovah  until  revealed 
to  him  at  Horeb.1  Now,  as  reported  in  Exodus, 
Moses  in  that  interview  addressed  God  as  '  Adon,' 
which  is  supposed  to  be  the  Hebrew  equivalent  of 
'  Aten,'  the  meaning  being  Lord.  This  is  a  curious 
incidental  agreement  with  the  prevalence  of  the  Aten 
worship  in  Egypt,  and  shows  that  this  name  may 
have  been  currently  used  by  the  Israelites,  whose 
God  Moses  himself  calls  Adon,  till  commanded  to 
use  the  name  Jehovah. 

A  second  point  of  contact  of  Egypt  and  Pales- 
tine is  in  the  painting  and  sculptures  of  hostile  and 
conquered  nations  in  Egyptian  temples  and  tombs. 
These  were  evidently  intended  to  be  portraits,  and 
an  admirable  series  of  them  has  been  published  by 
Mr.  Petrie  under  a  commission  from  the  British 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  By 
means  of  these  excellent  photographs,  now  before 
me,  we  can  see  for  ourselves  the  physiognomy  and 
form  of  head  of  the  Amorite,  Philistine,  Hittite,  and 
many  other  peoples  previously  known  to  us  only  by 
name  and  a  few  historical  facts  ;  and  thus  with  their 
correspondence,  as  preserved  in  the  Tel-el-Amarna 
tablets,  and  their  pictures  as  given  by  Petrie,  we 

1  Exodus  iii.  16  et  seqq.  This  passage  has  been  often  misunder- 
stood, but  it  certainly  shows  that  the  name  Jehovah  had  become 
nearly  obsolete  among  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt,  and  that  the  name 
usually  given  to  God  was  Adon  or  Aten. 


THE  PREHISTORIC  EAST  181 

have  them  before  us  much  as  we  have  the  speeches 
and  portraits  of  our  contemporaries  in  the  illustrated 
newspapers,  and  can  venture  to  express  some  opinion 
as  to  their  ethnic  affinities  and  appearance,  and  can 
judge  more  accurately  as  to  the  familiar  statements 
of  the  Bible  respecting  them.1  Lastly,  Maspero  and 
Tomkins  have,  with  the  aid  of  the  names  fixed  by 
the  survey  of  Western  Palestine,  revised  the  lists 
given  by  Thothmes  III.,  in  the  temple  of  Karnak,  of 
the  places  which  this  Egyptian  Alexander  had  con- 
quered ;  and  they  have  thus  verified  the  Hebrew 
geography  of  the  Books  of  Joshua  and  Judges. 

Another  unexpected  acquisition  is  the  solution  of 
the  mystery  which  has  enshrouded  that  mysterious 
people  known  as  Hyksos  or  shepherd  kings,  who 
invaded  Egypt  about  the  time  of  the  Hebrew 
patriarchs,  and,  after  keeping  the  Egyptians  in  sub- 
jection for  centuries,  were  finally  expelled  by  the 
predecessors  of  the  Amunoph  already  referred  to. 
They  constitute  a  great  feature  in  early  Egyptian 
history,  but  disappear  mysteriously,  leaving  no  trace 
but  a  few  sculptured  heads,  Turanian  in  aspect  and 
markedly  contrasting  with  those  of  the  native  Egyp- 
tians. It  now  appears  that  a  people  of  Northern 
Syria  and  Mesopotamia,  known  to  the  Egyptians  at 
a  later  time  as  Mitanni,  and  who  were  neighbours 
of  and  associated  with  the  Northern  Hittites,  have 
the  features  of  the  Hyksos.  It  also  seems  from  a 
letter  in  the  Tel-el-Amarna  tablets  that  they  spoke 

1  Sayce,  Races  of  the  Old  Testament,  Religious  Tract  Society. 


182  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

a  non-Semitic  or  Turanian  language  akin  to  that  of 
the  Hittites.  Thus  we  have  traced  the  shepherd 
kings  to  their  origin,  and,  curiously  enough,  Cushan- 
rish-athaim,  who  oppressed  the  Israelites  in  the  days 
of  Othniel,  seems  to  represent  a  later  inroad  of  the 
same  people. 

Such  'restitutions  of  decayed  intelligence'  now 
meet  us  on  every  hand  as  the  results  of  modern 
exploration,  and  are  enabling  us  to  bridge  over  the 
gaps  which  have  separated  the  geological  ages  from 
the  prehistoric  and  historic  human  periods  in  those 
ancient  countries  where  civilisation  seems  to  have 
originated. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  NEANTHROPIC  DISPERSION  AND  ALLIED 
TOPICS 

THE  remarkable  record  of  the  early  distribution  of 
the  sons  of  Noah  ('  Toledoth '  of  the  sons  of  Noah) 
in  Genesis  x.  may  be  regarded,  relatively  to  most  of 
the  nations  it  refers  to,  as  a  scrap  of  prehistoric  lore 
of  the  most  intensely  interesting  character.  From 
the  old  '  Phaleg '  of  Bochart  to  the  recent  commen- 
taries of  Delitzsch  and  other  German  scholars,  it  has 
received  a  host  of  more  or  less  conjectural  explana- 
tions ;  and  while  all  agree  in  extolling  its  value  and 
importance  as  a  *  Beginning  of  History,'  nothing  can 
be  more  various  than  the  views  taken  of  it.  Only 
in  the  light  of  the  recent  discoveries  and  researches 
already  referred  to  can  we  arrive  at  a  clear  conception 
of  its  import ;  but  with  these  and  some  common  sense 
we  may  hope  to  be  more  fortunate  than  the  older 
interpreters.  It  is  necessary,  however,  to  explain 
here  that,  for  want  of  a  little  scientific  precision, 
many  modern  archaeologists  still  fail  in  their  inter- 
pretations. They  tell  us  that  the  Toledoth  are  not 
properly  'ethnological,'  but  rather  *  ethnographical,1 


184  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

and  that  we  are  to  regard  the  document  as  referring, 
not  to  the  genealogical  affiliations  of  nations,  but  to 
their  accidental  geographical  positions  at  the  time  of 
the  record. 

Now  this  is  precisely  what  the  writer,  with  a  sure 
scientific  instinct,  carefully  guards  against,  and  ex- 
plicitly informs  us  he  did  not  intend.  He  tells  us 
that  he  gives  the  ' generations  of  the  sons  of  Noah' 
and  their  descendants,  and  at  the  ends  of  the  three 
lists  relating  to  these  sons,  he  is  careful  to  say  that 
he  has  given  them  '  in  their  lands,  each  according  to 
his  language,  after  their  families,  in  their  nations/  or 
the  formula  is  slightly  varied  into '  after  their  families, 
after  their  tongues,  in  their  lands,  in  their  nations.' 
Lastly,  in  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  table  he 
reiterates,  *  These  are  the  families  of  the  sons  of 
Noah,  according  to  their  generations,  after  their 
nations.'  All  these  statements,  let  it  be  observed, 
are  acknowledged  to  be  parts  of  one  (Elohistic) 
document.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  the  writer 
intends  us  to  understand  that  the  determining  elements 
of  his  classification  are  neither  physical  characters 
nor  accidents  of  geographical  distribution,  but  descent 
an  I  original  language — two  primary  and  scientific 
grounds  of  classification,  and  which  common  sense 
requires  us  to  adhere  to  in  interpreting  the  document, 
whose  value  will  depend  on  the  certainty  with  Which 
the  writer  could  ascertain  facts  as  to  these  criteria : 
criteria  which  are,  of  course,  less  open  to  the  observa- 
tion of  later  inquirers,  who  may  find  difficulty  in 


1 86  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

ascertaining  either  descent  or  original  language,  and 
in  default  of  these  may  be  obliged  to  resort  to  other 
grounds  of  classification. 

Among  modern  archaeologists  it  has  been  a  fruit- 
ful source  of  controversy  whether  we  should  classify 
men  according  to  their  skulls  or  to  their  tongues  ;  in 
other  words,  whether  physical  characters  or  linguistic 
should  be  dominant  in  our  classifications.  Neither 
ground  is  absolutely  certain.  We  may  find  long  and 
short  skulls  in  the  same  grave-mound,  and  there  are 
intermediate  forms  which  defy  certain  arrangement. 
In  like  manner  history  assures  us  that  people  of  one 
race  have  often  adopted  the  language  of  another. 
True  science  warns  us  that  we  may  err  unless  we  give 
a  fair  valuation  to  every  available  character.  The 
ethnologist  of  Genesis  considers  both  physical  and 
linguistic  characters,  but  bases  his  arrangement 
mainly  on  the  sure  ground  of  descent  along  with 
original  language. 

It  may  be  said,  however,  that  if  taken  in  the 
sense  obviously  intended  by  the  writer,  the  list  will 
not  correspond  with  the  facts.  A  few  data  have, 
however,  to  be  taken  into  the  account  in  order  to  give 
this  early  writer  fair  play. 

i.  The  record  has  nothing  to  do  with  antediluvian 
peoples  or  with  survivors  of  the  Deluge  other  than 
the  sons  of  Noah,  if  there  were  any  such.  Therefore, 
those  ethnologists  who  are  sceptical  as  to  the  his- 
torical Deluge,  and  who  postulate  an  uninterrupted 
advance  of  man  through  long  ages  of  semi-bestial 


THE  DISPERSION  187 

brutality,  have  nothing  in  common  with  our  narrator, 
and  cannot  possibly  understand  his  statements. 

2.  The  document  does  not  profess  to  be  a  series 
of  ethnological  inferences  from  the  present  or  ancient 
characters  of  different    nations,  but   an    actual    his- 
torical statement  of  the  known  migrations  of  men 
from  a  common  centre  in  Shinar,  the  Sumir  of  the 
Chaldeans. 

3.  It  relates  only  to  the  primary  distribution  of 
men  from  their  alleged  centre  over  certain  districts 
of    Western    Asia,    Eastern    Europe,   and    Northern 
Africa,  and  does  not   profess  to  know  anything  of 
their  subsequent  migrations  or  history. 

4.  It  is  thus  not  responsible  for  those  later,  even 
if  very  ancient,  changes  which  displaced  one  race  by 
another,  or   obliged   one   race   to  move   on   by   the 
pressure  of  another,  nor  for  any  changes  of  language 
or  mixtures  of  races  which  may  have  occurred   in 
these  movements. 

5.  It  affirms  nothing  as  to  the  physical  characters 
of  the   races   referred    to,   except   as   they  may   be 
inferred  from  heredity,  but  it  implies  some  resemblance 
in    language  between    the   derivatives   of  the   same 
stock,  and  this,  be  it  observed,  notwithstanding  the 
added  narrative  of  the  confusion  of  tongues  at  Babel,1 
which  the   narrator  does   not   regard  as   interfering 
with  the  fact  of  languages  originally  forming  a  few 
branches  proceeding  from  a  common  stock. 

1  Held  by  some  to  belong  to  another  (Jahvistic)  document,  but 
certainly  incorporated  by  the  early  editor. 


i88  GEOLOGY  AAD  HISTORY 

6.  If  we  ask  what  our  narrator  supposed  to  be 
the  original  or  Noachic  tongue,  we  might  infer  from 
his  three  lines  of  descent,  and  from  the  locality  of  the 
dispersion  and  the  episode  of  Nimrod's  prehistoric 
kingdom,  that  the  primitive  language  of  Chaldea 
would  be  the  original  stem  ;  and  this  we  now  know 
from  authentic  written  records  to  have  been  an 
agglutinate  language  of  the  type  usually  known  as 
Turanian,  and  more  closely  allied  to  the  Tartar  and 
Chinese  tongues  than  to  other  kinds  of  speech.  It 
would  follow  that  what  we  now  call  Semitic  and 
Aryan  or  Japhetic  forms  of  speech  must,  in  the  view 
of  our  ancient  authority,  date  from  the  sequelae  of  the 
great '  confusion  of  tongues.' 

These  points  being  premised,  we  can  clear  away 
the  fogs  which  have  been  gathered  around  this  little 
luminous  spot  in  the  early  history  of  the  world,  and 
can  trace  at  least  the  principal  ethnic  lines  of  radiation 
from  it.  Though  the  writer  gives  us  three  main 
branches  of  affiliation  of  the  children  of  Noah,  he 
really  refers  to  six  principal  lines  of  migration,  three 
of  them  belonging  to  that  multifarious  progeny  of 
Ham,  in  which  he  seems  to  include  both  the  Turanian 
and  Negroid  types  of  our  ordinary  classifications,  as 
well  as  some  of  the  brown  and  yellow  races. 

One  of  the  lines  of  affiliation  of  Ham  leads 
eastward  and  is  not  traced  ;  but  if  the  Cushite  people, 
who  are  said  to  have  gone  to  the  land  which  in  earlier 
antediluvian  times  was  that  of  '  gold  and  bedolach 
and  shoham  stone,'  that  is,  along  the  fertile  valley  of 


THE  DISPERSION  189 

Susiana,  were  those  primitive  people,  preceding  the 
Elamites  of  history,  who  are  said  to  have  spoken  an 
agglutinate  language,1  then  we  have  at  least  one 
stage  of  this  migration.  A  second  line  leads  west  to 
the  eastern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  to  Egypt  and 
to  North  Africa.  A  third  passes  south-westward 
through  Southern  Arabia  and  across  the  Red  Sea 
into  interior  Africa.  To  the  sons  of  Japhet  are 
ascribed  two  lines  of  migration,  one  through  Asia 
Minor  and  the  northern  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean  ; 
another  north-west,  around  the  Black  Sea.  The 
Semites  would  seem  to  have  been  a  less  wandering 
people  at  the  first,  but  subsequently  to  have  encroached 
on  and  mingled  with  the  Hamites,  and  especially  on 
that  western  line  of  migration  leading  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean. All  this  can  be  gathered  from  undisputed 
national  names  in  the  several  lines  of  migration  above 
sketched,  without  touching  on  the  more  obscure  and 
doubtful  names  or  referring  to  tribes  which  remained 
near  the  original  centre.  We  must,  however,  inquire 
a  little  more  particularly  into  the  movements  bearing 
on  Palestine  and  Egypt. 

1  Sayce  (Hibbert  Lectures)  and  Bagster's  Records  oj  the  Past. 
Inscriptions  of  Cyrus  published  in  the  last  volume  of  the  latter  appear 
to  set  at  rest  the  vexed  questions  relating  to  early  Elam.  It  would 
seem  that  in  the  earliest  -times  Cushites  and  Semitic  Elamites 
contended  for  the  fertile  plains  and  the  mountains  east  of  the  Tigris, 
and  were  finally  subjugated  by  Japhetic  Medes  and  Persians.  Thus 
this  region  first  formed  a  part  of  the  Cushite  Nimrodic  empire 
(Genesis  ii.  n,  x.  8) ;  it  then  became  the  seat  of  a  conquering  Elamite 
power  (Genesis  xiv.  I  to  4) ;  and  was  finally  a  central  part  of  the 
Medo-Persian  empire.  All  this  agrees  with  the  Bible  and  the 
inscriptions,  as  well  as  in  the  main  with  Herodotus. 


190  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

So  far  as  the  writer  in  Genesis  is  informed,  he 
does  not  seem  to  be  aware  of  any  sons  of  Japhet 
having  colonised  Palestine  or  Egypt.  It  was  only  in 
the  later  reflux  of  population  that  the  sons  of  Javan 
gained  a  foothold  in  these  regions.  They  were  both 
colonised  primarily  by  Hamites  and  subsequently 
intruded  on  by  Semites. 

Here  a  little  prehistoric  interlude  noted  by  the 
writer,  or  by  an  author  whom  he  quotes,  gives  a 
valuable  clue  not  often  attended  to.  The  oldest  son 
of  Ham,  Cush,  begat  Nimrod,  the  mighty  hunter  and 
prehistoric  conqueror,  who  organised  the  first  empire 
in  that  Euphratean  plain  which  subsequently  became 
•the  nucleus  of  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  power. 
The  site  of  his  kingdom  cannot  be  doubted,  for 
cities  well  known  in  historic  times,  Babel,  Erech, 
Accad,  and  Calneh,  were  included  in  it,  as  well  as 
probably  Nineveh.  The  first  point  which  I  wish  to 
make  in  this  connection  is  that  we  cannot  suppose 
this  to  have  been  a  Semitic  empire.  Its  nucleus 
must  have  been  composed  of  Nimrod's  tribal  con- 
nections, who  were  Hamites  and  presumably  Cushites. 
He  is,  indeed,  said  to  have  gone  into  or  invaded  the 
land  of  Ashur,  and  if  by  this  is  meant  the  Semitic 
Ashur,  he  must  have  been  hostile  to  these  people, 
as  indeed  the  Chaldeans  were  in  later  times.  The 
next  point  to  be  noted  is  that  the  Nimrodic 
empire  must  have  originated  at  a  time  when  the 
Cushites  were  still  strong  on  the  Lower  Euphrates, 
and  before  that  great  movement  of  these  people 


THE  DISPERSION  191 

which  carried  them  across  Arabia  to  the  Upper 
Nile,  and  ultimately  caused  the  name  Cush  or 
Kesh  to  be  almost  exclusively  applied  to  the 
Ethiopians  of  Africa.  Now  is  this  history,  or  mere 
legend  ? 

The  answer  of  archaeology  is  not  doubtful.     We 
have  in  the  earliest  monuments  of  Chaldea  evidence 


HEAD      ILLUSTRATING      THE      MOST      ANCIENT      TYPE      OF 

CUSHITE  TURANIAN,  FROM  TEL-LOH  (after  de  Sarzec). 
The  cap  is  perhaps  an  imitation  of  the  antediluvian 
shell-caps,  like  that  of  the  '  man  of  Mentorie. ' 

that  there  was  a  pre-Semitic  population,  to  whom, 
indeed,  it  is  believed  that  the  Semites  who  invaded 
the  country  owed  much  of  their  civilisation.  A  recent 
writer  has  said  that  *  outside  of  the  Bible  we  know- 
nothing  of  Nimrod,'  but  others  see  a  trace  of  him  in 
the  legendary  hero  of  Chaldean  tradition,  Gisdubar 
or  Gingamos,  while  others  think  that,  as  Na-marod, 


192  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

he  may  be  the  original  of  Merodach,  the  tutelary  god 
of  Babylon.  Independently  of  this,  there  was  cer- 
tainly an  early  Chaldean  and  *  Turanian'  empire, 
which  must  have  had  some  founder,  whatever  his 
name,  and  which  was  not  Semitic  or  Aryan,  and 
therefore  what  an  early  writer  would  call  Hamitic. 
Further,  our  author  traces  from  this  region  the  great 
Cushite  line  of  migration,  which  includes  such  well- 
known  names  as  Seba,  Sabta,  Sheba  and  Dedan,  into 
Arabia  on  the  way  to  Africa.  Here  the  Egyptian 
monuments  take  up  the  tale,  and  inform  us  of  a  South 
Arabian  and  East  African  people,  the  people  of  Pun 
or  Punt,  represented  as  like  to  themselves  and  to  the 
Kesh  or  Ethiopians,  and  who  thus  correspond  to  the 
Arabian  Cushites  of  Genesis.  In  accordance  with 
this  the  Abyssinian  of  to-day  is  scarcely  distinguish- 
able from  the  old  Punites  as  represented  on  the 
Egyptian  monuments.1 

Thus  the  primitive  Cushite  kingdom  and  one  of 
the  great  lines  of  Cushite  migration  are  established 
by  ancient  monuments.  Let  it  be  further  observed 
that,  as  represented  in  Egypt,  these  primitive 
Ethiopians  were  not  black,  but  of  a  reddish  or 
brownish  colour,  like  the  Egyptians  themselves,  and 
that  their  migration  explains  the  resemblance  of  the 
customs  and  religion  of  early  Egypt  to  those  of 
Babylonia,  and  the  ascription  by  the  Egyptians  of 
the  origin  of  their  gods  to  the  land  of  Pun. 

1  The   recent   discoveries  of    Glaser  with  reference  to  the  early 
civilisation  of  Southern  Arabia  also  bear  on  this  point. 


THE  DISPERSION  193 

The  remaining  sons  of  Ham,  Mizraim,  Put  and 
Canaan,  are  not  mentioned  in  connection  with  the 
old  Nimrodic  kingdom,  and  seem  to  have  moved 
westward  at  a  very  early  period.  They  were  already 
'  in  the  land/  and  apparently  constituted  a  consider- 
able citizen  population  before  the  migration  of 
Abraham. 

Mizraim  represents  the  twin  populations  of  the 
delta  and  Lower  Egypt,  and  the  Tel-el-Amarna 
tablets  inform  us  that  long  before  the  time  of  Moses 
Mitzor  was  the  ordinary  name  of  Egypt,  while  we 
know  that  its  early  population  was  closely  allied  in 
features  and  language  to  the  Cushites. 

Canaan 1  heads  a  central  line  of  migration,  and 
Sidon  and  Cheth  are  said  to  have  been  his  leading 
sons.  The  first  represents  the  Phoenician  maritime 
power  of  Northern  Syria,  the  second  that  great  nation 
known  to  the  Egyptians  as  Kheta  and  to  the 
Assyrians  as  Khatti,  whose  territory  extended  from 
Carchemish  on  the  Euphrates  through  the  plain  of 
Coele-Syria  to  Hebron  in  Southern  Palestine,  and  not 
improbably  into  the  delta.  They  were  a  people 
whose  language  was  allied  to  that  of  Cushite  Chal- 
dea,2  whose  features  were  of  a  coarser  type  than  those 
of  their  more  southern  confreres,  and  who,  according 
to  the  Egyptian  annals,  were  closely  allied  with  the 

1  Canaan  with  our  old  historian  is  the  name  of  a  man,  but  it  came 
to  designate  first  the  'low  country'  or  coast  region  of  Western 
Palestine,  and  then  the  whole  of  Palestine. 

-  Conder  and  others  call  it  Turanian. 

N 


194  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

Amorites,  Jebusites,  and  other  people  identified  with 
Canaan  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  Cheta,  at  one 
time  known  only  as  the  sons  of  Heth  in  the  Old 
Testament,  may  be  said  in  our  time  to  have  ex- 
perienced a  sudden  resurrection,  and  now  bulk  so 
largely  in  the  minds  of  archaeologists  that  their 
importance  is  in  danger  of  being  exaggerated. 

A  significant  note  is  added  :  *  Afterwards  were 
the  families  of  the  Canaanites  scattered  abroad.'  How 
could  this  be  ?  Their  line  of  migration  and  settle- 
ment led  directly  to  the  great  sea,  and  was  hemmed 
in  by  that  of  the  Japhetites  on  the  north  and  of  the 
Cushites  on  the  south ;  but  they  made  the  sea  their 
highway,  and  soon  there  was  no  coast  from  end  to 
end  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  far  along  the  European 
and  African  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  that  was  not 
familiar  with  the  Phoenician  Canaanite.  But  it  may 
be  said  these  Phoenicians  were  a  Semitic  people. 
They  certainly  spoke  a  Semitic  language  allied  to 
the  Hebrew,  but  what  right  have  we  to  attribute 
Semitic  languages  solely  to  the  descendants  of  the 
Biblical  Shem  ?  Even  if  these  languages  originated 
with  them  they  may  have  spread  to  other  peoples,  as 
we  know  they  replaced  the  old  Turanian  speech  of 
Babylonia,  just  as  the  Arabic  has  extinguished  other 
languages  in  Egypt  itself.  In  whatever  way  the 
Phoenicians  acquired  a  Semitic  tongue,  in  physical 
character  they  were  not  Semitic,  but  closely  allied  to 
the  Hittites,  the  Philistines,  and  the  people  of  Mitzor, 
or  Egypt.  The  Egyptian  sculptures  prove  this,  and 


THE  DISPERSION  195 

the  celebrated  Capuan  bust  of  Hannibal  reminds  us 
of  the  features  of  the  old  Hyksos  kings  of  Egypt, 
who  were  no  doubt  of  Hamite  or  Turanian  stock. 

Finally,  what  relation  does  the  record  in  Genesis  x. 
bear  to  the  prehistoric  peoples  of  the  neanthropic 
age  ?  These  must  have  been  in  the  main  the  ad- 
vanced colonists  and  straggling  adventurers  of  the 
leading  lines  of  migration.  We  find  such  people 
recorded  in  the  Pentateuch,  and  also  in  the  caverns 
and  shelters  of  Phoenicia,  as  preceding  the  Canaan- 
ites  in  Syria ;  and  such  nomads  and  hunters  must 
have  streamed  out  into  Europe  and  Africa  in  advance 
of  the  more  settled  and  slowly  advancing  agricultural 
peoples.  At  first  they  must  have  been  few,  rude,  and 
users  of  stone  implements  only,  living  chiefly  by 
hunting  and  fishing  ;  but  some  of  them  may  have 
taken  with  them  domestic  animals  and  seeds  of  grains, 
and  so  have  established  here  and  there  civilised  com- 
munities. In  later  times,  new  colonists  and  commerce 
introduced  among  them  bronze  and  iron  and  more 
advanced  arts.  Thus  these  early  neanthropic  peoples 
belonged  to  one  or  other  of  the  great  lines  of  migra- 
tion indicated  in  our  old  record  ;  though  by  virtue  of 
physical  changes  and  dialectic  differences  induced  by 
isolation  and  new  conditions  of  life,  and  which  in 
such  circumstances  would  arise  with  a  rapidity  un- 
exampled in  later  times,  as  well  as  the  want  of 
historical  annals,  it  has  in  many  cases  become  difficult 
or  impossible  precisely  to  trace  their  affinities.  Even 
in  Palestine,  at  the  time  of  the  Exodus,  peoples  of 

l\   2 


196  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

this  kind  (Horites,  Avvites,  &c.) l  were  known,  whose 
affinities  had  been  lost ;  and  it  is  not  necessary  to 
suppose  that  these  were  remnants  of  antediluvians, 
since  what  we  know  in  modern  times  of  the  wanderers 
on  the  outskirts  of  great  migrations  sufficiently  ac- 
counts for  their  existence. 

This  is,  I  think,  a  fair  summary  of  the  testimony 
of  the  writer  of  Genesis  x.,  as  compared  with  the 
general  evidence  of  history  and  archaeology.  But  we 
have  something  further  to  learn  from  what  may  be 
called  the  fossil  remains  of  prehistoric  peoples  as 
embodied  in  the  Egyptian  monuments,  which  are 
conversant  with  all  the  nations  around  the  eastern 
end  of  the  Mediterranean. 

The  Egyptians  divided  the  nations  known  to  them 
into  four  groups,  of  which  they  have  given  us  several 
representations  in  tombs  and  public  buildings.  One 
of  these  consisted  of  their  own  race.  The  other  three 
were  as  follows ;  (i)  Southern  peoples  mostly  of 
dark  complexions,  ranging  from  light  brown  to  black. 
These  included  the  Cushites,  Punites,  and  negroes. 

(2)  Western  peoples  mostly  of  fair  complexions  in- 
habiting  the    islands    and    northern    coasts   of    the 
Mediterranean,  the  *  Hanebu '  or  chiefs  of  the  north 
or   of    the    isles,   with    some   populations   of  North 
Africa,  the  so-called  white   Lybians  and  Maxyans. 

(3)  Northern   or  north-eastern  peoples,  or  those  of 
Syria  and  the  neighbouring  parts  of  Western  Asia, 
Amorites,    Hittites,    Edomites,    Arabs,    &c.,    usually 
represented  as  of  yellowish  complexion. 

1  Deuteronomy  ii. 


THE  DTSPERSION  197 

The  first  of  these  divisions  evidently  corresponds 
with  the  line  of  Cushite  migration  of  Genesis,  extend- 
ing from  Shinar  through  Southern  Arabia,  Nubia, 
and  Ethiopia,  and  of  which  the  negroes  are  apparently 
degraded  members  pushed  in  advance  of  the  others, 
while  the  populations  of  Pun  and  Kesh,  the  southern 
Arabians  and  their  relatives  in  Africa,  closely  re- 
semble, as  figured  in  the  monuments,  the  Egyptians 
themselves. 

The  second  group  of  the  Egyptian  classification 
represents  those  so-called  Aryan  peoples  of  Europe 
and  its  islands,  and  parts  of  Northern  Africa,  of 
whom  the  Greeks  are  a  typical  race,  and  who  in 
Genesis  are  said  to  have  possessed  the  '  Isles  of  the 
Gentiles ' ;  though  in  the  wave  of  migration  from 
the  east  they  were  in  many  places  preceded  by 
non-Aryan  races,  Pelasgians,  Iberians,  &c.,  possibly 
wandering  Hamitic  tribes,  while  they  were  also  in- 
vaded by  that  scattering  abroad  of  the  Phoenician 
Canaan ites  referred  to  in  Genesis.  They  are  repre- 
sented in  the  monuments  as  people  with  European 
features,  fair  complexions,  and  sometimes  fair  hair 
and  blue  eyes. 

The  third  group  is  the  most  varied  of  the  whole, 
because  its  seat  in  Syria  was  a  meeting-place  of  many 
tribes.  Its  most  ancient  members,  the  Phoenicians 
and  allied  nations,  were,  according  to  the  monuments, 
men  resembling  the  Egyptian  and  Cushite  type,  and 
these,  no  doubt,  were  those  pre-Semitic  and  pre- 
historic nations  of  Canaan  referred  to  in  the  remark- 


198  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

able  notes  regarding  the  Emim,  Zuzim,  &c.,  in  the 
second  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  which  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  foot-note  to  the  Toledoth  of  Genesis  x. 
These  aborigines  were  invaded  by  men  of  different 
types.  First,  we  find  in  the  monuments  that  the 
Amorites  of  the  Palestine  hills  were  a  fair  people 
with  somewhat  European  features,  like  some  of  the 
present  populations  of  the  Lebanon.  When  re- 
turning over  the  Lebanon  in  1884  we  met  a  large 
company  of  men  with  camels  and  donkeys  carrying 
merchandise.  They  were  fair-complexioned  and  with 
brown  hair,  and  from  their  features  I  might  have 
supposed  they  were  Scottish  Highlanders.  I  was 
told  they  were  Druses,  and  they  were  evidently  much 
like,  as  are  indeed  many  of  the  modern  fellaheen  of 
the  Palestine  hills,  the  Amar  as  they  are  pictured  in 
Egypt.  These  white  peoples,  though  reckoned  in 
the  Bible  as  Hamites,  may  have  had  a  mixture  of 
Aryan  blood.  It  is  to  be  noted  here  that  the 
Amorite  chiefs,  Aner,  Eshcol,  and  Mamre,  named 
as  confederate  with  Abraham,  have  non-Semitic 
names. 

A  later  inroad  was  that  of  the  Hittites,  evidently 
a  people  having  affinity  with  the  Philistines  and 
Egyptians,  but  whose  chiefs  and  nobles  seem  to  have 
been  of  Tartar  blood,  like  the  modern  Turks.  The 
names  of  their  kings  seem  also  to  have  been  non- 
Semitic.  Later,  the  great  westward  migration  of 
Semitic  peoples,  to  which  that  of  Abraham  himself 
belongs,  not  only  introduced  the -Israelites  but  many 


THE  DISPERSION  199 

nations  of  Semitic  or  mixed  blood,  the  Moabites, 
Ammonites,  Edomites,  Ishmaelites,  &c.,  whom  we 
find  figuring  in  the  Egyptian  monuments  as  yellow 
or  brownish  people  with  a  Jewish  style  of  features, 
and  all  of  whom,  as  mentioned  above,  would  be  known 
to  the  Egyptians  and  Canaanites  as  '  Hebrews.' l 

Thus  the  monuments  confirm  the  Jewish  record, 
and  the  confusion  which  some  ethnologists  have 
introduced  into  the  matter  arises  from  their  applying 
in  an  arbitrary  manner  the  special  tests  of  physical 
and  philological  characteristics,  and  neglecting  to 
distinguish  the  primary  migrations  of  men  from  sub- 
sequent intrusions. 

Another  singular  point  of  agreement  is  that,  just 
as  in  Egypt  we  find  men  civilised  from  the  first,  so 
we  find  elsewhere.  In  Egypt  writing  and  literature 
date  from  before  the  time  of  Abraham.  In  like 
manner  we  have  no  monumental  evidence  of  any 
time  when  the  Accadian  people  of  Babylonia  were 
destitute  of  writing  and  science,  and  we  now  find 
that  there  were  learned  scribes  in  all  the  cities  of 
Canaan,  and  that  the  Phoenicians  and  Southern 
Arabians  knew  their  alphabet  ages  before  Moses, 
while  even  the  Greeks  seem  to  have  known  alpha- 
betic writing  long  before  the  Mosaic  age.2  These 
men,  in  short,  were  descendants  of  the  survivors  of 

1  This  is  independent  of  the  question  whether  we  regard  the  name 
Eber  as  that  of  an  ancestor,   or  merely   of  men  from  beyond  the 
Euphrates. 

2  Petrie,  Tllahun,  Kahun  and  Garob,  1891. 


200  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

the  Noachian  Deluge,  and  therefore  civilised  from 
the  first ;  and  though  we  have  no  certain  evidence  of 
letters  before  the  Flood,  except  the  statement  of  the 
author  of  the  Babylonian  deluge  tablets,  that  Noah 
hid  written  archives  at  Sippara  before  going  into 
the  ark,  yet  it  is  quite  certain  that  men  who  could 
build  Noah's  ship  are  not  unworthy  ancestors  of  the 
Phoenician  seamen,  who  probably  launched  their  barks 
on  the  Mediterranean  before  the  death  of  Noah  himself. 
Thus,  whatever  value  we  may  attach  to  the  record 
in  Genesis,  we  cannot  refuse  to  admit  that  it  is 
thoroughly  consistent  with  itself  and  with  the  testi- 
mony of  the  oldest  monuments  of  Asia  and  Africa, 
as  it  is  also  with  the  evidence  of  the  geological 
changes  of  the  pleistocene  and  early  modern 
epoch. 

In  like  manner  the  Egyptian  inscriptions  of  the 
conquests  of  Thothmes  III.  give  us  a  pre-Mosaic 
record  of  Palestinian  geography  corresponding  with 
that  of  the  Hebrew  conquest,  and  the  pictures  of 
sieges  coincide  with  the  excavations  of  Petrie  at 
Lachish  in  restoring  those  Canaanite  towns,  '  walled 
up  to  heaven/  which  excited  the  fear  of  the  Israelites. 
Neither  can  we  scoff  at  the  illiteracy  of  men  who 
were  carrying  on  diplomatic  correspondence  in  written 
despatches  before  Genesis  itself  was  compiled.  Nor 
can  we  doubt  the  military  prowess  of  these  people, 
their  chariot  forces,  their  sculptured  idols  and 
images,  their  wealth  of  gold  and  silver,  their  agri- 
cultural and  artistic  skill.  All  these  are  amply 


THE  DISPERSE!*  201 

proved  by  the  monuments  of  the  Egyptians  and  the 
Hittites.1 

Palestine  thus  presents  a  prehistoric  past  parallel 
with  the  earlier  years  of  Egypt.  It  has,  however,  a 
still  earlier  period,  for  in  Palestine,  as  stated  in  a 
previous  chapter,  we  have  evidence  of  the  existence 
of  man  long  before  the  dispersion  of  the  sons  of 
Noah.  To  appreciate  this  evidence,  we  must  go 
back,  as  in  the  case  of  Egypt,  to  the  pre-human 
period.  All  along  the  coast  of  Palestine,  from  Jaffa 
to  the  northern  limit  of  old  Phoenicia,  the  geological 
traveller  sees  evidence  of  a  recent  submergence,  in 
the  occurrence  of  sandstone,  gravel,  and  limestone 
with  shells  and  other  marine  remains  of  species  still 
living  in  the  Mediterranean.  These  are  the  relics  of 
that  pleistocene  submergence  already  referred  to,  in 
which  the  Nile  valley  was  an  arm  of  the  sea  and 
Africa  was  an  island.  No  evidence  has  been  found 
of  the  residence  of  man  in  Palestine  in  this  period, 
when,  as  the  sea  washed  the  very  bases  of  the  hills, 
and  the  plains  were  under  water,  it  was  certainly  not 
very  well  suited  to  his  abode.  The  climate  was  also 
probably  more  severe  than  at  present,  and  the  glaciers 
of  Lebanon  must  have  extended  nearly  to  the  sea. 

1  Bliss,  in  the  Quarterly  Statement  of  the  Palestine  Exploration 
Fund  for  April  1892,  figures  many  interesting  objects,  found  in  the 
lower  or  Amorite  stratum  of  the  mound  of  Tell-el-Hesy  (Lachish). 
We  have  here  a  bronze  battle-axe  and  heads  of  javelins  that  may  have 
been  used  against  the  soldiers  of  Joshua,  and  axes  and  pottery  of 
equally  early  date,  along  with  multitudes  of  flint  flakes,  arrow-heads, 
&c.,  used  at  this  early  time.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  further 
exploration  of  this  site  may  yield  yet  more  interesting  results. 


202  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

This  was  the  time  of  the  so-called  glacial  period  in 
Western  Europe. 

This,  however,  was  succeeded  by  that  post-glacial 
period  in  which,  as  already  explained,  the  area  of 
the  Mediterranean  was  much  smaller  than  at  present, 
and  the  land  encroached  far  upon  the  bed  of  the  sea. 
This,  the  second  continental  period,  is  that  in  which 
man  makes  his  first  undoubted  appearance  in  Europe, 
and  we  have  evidence  of  the  same  kind  in  Syria, 
to  which  I  have  already  directed  attention  in  the 
description  of  the  caverns  of  the  Lebanon,  in 
Chapter  IV. 

That  the  occupancy  of  these  caves  is  very  ancient 
is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  old  Egyptian  con- 
querors, who  cut  a  road  for  themselves  over  these 
precipices  before  the  Exodus,  seem  to  have  found 
them  in  the  same  state  as  at  present,  while  farther 
south  ancient  Syrian  tombs  are  excavated  in  similar 
bone  breccias.  But  there  is  better  evidence  than  this. 
The  bones  and  teeth  in  these  caves  belong  not  to  the 
animals  which  have  inhabited  the  Lebanon  in  historic 
times,  but  to  creatures  like  the  hairy  rhinoceros  and 
the  bison,  now  extinct,  which  could  not  have  lived  in 
this  region  since  the  comparatively  modern  period  in 
which  the  Mediterranean  resumed  its  dominion  over 
that  great  plain  between  Phoenicia  and  Cyprus.  This 
we  know  had  been  submerged  long  before  the  first 
migrations  of  the  Himites  into  Phoenicia,  even  before 
the  entrance  of  those  comparatively  rude  tribes  which 
seem  to  have  inhabited  the  country  before  the  Phceni- 


THE  DISPERSION  203 

cian  colonisation.1  Unfortunately  no  burials  of  these 
early  men  have  yet  been  found,  and  perhaps  the 
Lebanon  caves  were  only  their  summer  sojourns  on 
hunting  expeditions.  They  were,  however,  probably 
of  the  same  stock  with  the  races  (the  Cro-magnon 
and  Canstadt)  of  the  so-called  mammoth  age  in 
Western  Europe,  who  have  left  similar  remains.  Thus 
we  can  carry  man  in  the  Lebanon  back  to  that  abso- 
lutely prehistoric  age  which  preceded  the  Noachian 
Deluge  and  the  dispersion  of  the  Noachidae.2 

If  in  imagination  we  suppose  ourselves  to  visit 
the  caves  of  the  Nahr-el-Kelb  pass,  when  they  were 
inhabited  by  these  early  men,  we  should  find  them  to 
be  tall  muscular  people,  clothed  in  skins,  armed  with 
flint-tipped  javelins  and  flint  hatchets,  and  cooking 
the  animals  caught  in  the  chase  in  the  mouths  of 
their  caves.  They  were  probably  examples  of  the 
ruder  and  less  civilised  members  of  that  powerful  and 
energetic  antediluvian  population  which  had  appa- 
rently perfected  so  many  arts,  and  the  remains  of 
whose  more  advanced  communities  are  now  buried 
in  the  silt  of  the  sea  bottom.  If  we  looked  out 
westward  on  what  is  now  the  Mediterranean,  we 
should  see  a  wide  wooded  or  grassy  plain  as  far  as 
eye  could  reach,  and  perhaps  might  discern  vast 
herds  of  elephant,  rhinoceros,  and  bison  wandering 

1  Some  of  these  tribes  also  lived  in  caves,  as  that  of  Ant  Elias,  but 
the  animals  they  consumed  are  those  now  living  in  the  Lebanon. 

2  Dawson,  Trans.  Viet.  Institute,  May  1884;  also  Modern  Science 
in  Bible  Lands. 


204  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

over  these  plains  in  their  annual  migrations.  Possibly 
on  the  far  margin  of  the  land  we  might  see  the  smoke 
of  antediluvian  towns  long  ago  deeply  submerged  in 
the  sea. 

The  great  diluvial  catastrophe  which  closed  this 
period,  and  finally  introduced  the  present  geographical 
conditions,  we  have  seen  good  reason  to  identify  with 
the  historical  Deluge,  and  the  old  peoples  of  the  age 
of  the  mammoth  and  rhinoceros  were  antediluvians, 
and  must  have  perished  from  the  earth  before  the 
earliest  migration  of  the  Beni  Noah. 

Putting  together  the  results  referred  to  in  the 
preceding  pages,  we  may  restore  the  prehistoric  ages 
of  the  Eastern  Mediterranean  under  the  following 
statements : 

1.  In  the  period  immediately  preceding   human 
occupancy,  the  land  of  Palestine,  Egypt,  and  Arabia 
participated    in    the    great    pleistocene   depression, 
accompanied  by  a  rigorous  climate. 

2.  The  next  stage  was  one  of  continental  elevation, 
in  which  the  borders  of  the  Mediterranean  were  dry 
land,  and  vast  plains  in  this  basin,  and  even  in  the 
Western  Atlantic,  were  open  to  human  migration.     In 
this  age  palseocosmic  men  took  up  their  abode  all  over 
Western    Asia,    Europe,   and    Northern    Africa,  and 
probably  occupied  broad  lands  since  submerged.     At 
this  period  the  region  was  inhabited  by  the  mammoth, 
rhinoceros,  bison,  and  other  large  animals  now  alto- 
gether or  locally  extinct. 

3.  The  earlier  part  of  this  post-glacial  or  antedi- 


THE  DISPERSION  205 

luvian  period  was  one  of  mild  climatal  conditions, 
followed  by  a  slight  return  of  the  conditions  of  the 
previous  glacial  age. 

4.  The  period  was  terminated  by    a   great  sub- 
mergence,   accompanied    with    vast    destruction    of 
animal  and  human  life ;  and  of  comparatively  short 
duration,  corresponding  to  the  historical  Deluge. 

5.  From  this  depression  the  more  limited  conti- 
nents of  the  modern  period  were  elevated,  and  man 
again  overspread  them  from  his  primitive  seats  in 
the    Euphratean    region,   as   recorded   in   the   tenth 
chapter  of  Genesis. 

6.  In  this  early  migration  the  Biblical  Hamites, 
forming  one  of  the  groups  of  men  vaguely  known  as 
Turanian,  first  spread  themselves  over  Palestine  and 
Egypt,  and  founded  the  early  Phoenician,  Canaanite, 
Mizraimite,  and  Cushite  tribes  and  nations. 

7.  In     early     historic     times     Semitic    peoples, 
Hebrews  and  others  from  the  east,  and  Mongoloid 
peoples   from   the    north,    migrated    into   Palestine 
and    dominated    and     mixed    with     the     primitive 
tribes,    finally    penetrating    into    Egypt    and    esta- 
blishing there  the  dominion  known  as  that  of  the 
Hyksos.       The     historical     Moabites,     Ammonites, 
Ishmaelites,    and     Hittites    were     peoples    of    this 
character,   having   a   substratum    of    Hamite   blood 
with  aristocracies  of  Semitic  or  Tartar  origin. 

It  will  be  observed  that  while  .archaeological 
evidence  tends  to  illustrate  and  corroborate  that 
wonderful  collection  of  early  historical  documents 


206  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

contained  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  and  to  prove 
their  great  antiquity,  on  the  other  hand  these 
documents  prove  to  be  the  most  precious  sources 
of  information  as  to  the  antediluvian  age,  the  great 
Flood,  the  earliest  dispersion  of  men,  the  old  Nimrodic 
empire,  the  connections  of  Asiatic  and  African 
civilisation,  and  other  matters  connected  with  the 
origins  of  the  oldest  nations,  respecting  which  we 
have  little  other  written  history. 

We  thus  learn  that,  relatively  to  Bible  history, 
there  is  no  prehistoric  age,  since  it  carries  us  back 
beyond  the  Deluge  to  the  origin  of  man,  so  that  we 
might  properly  restrict  this  term  in  its  narrower 
signification  to  those  parts  of  the  world  not  covered 
by  this  primitive  history.  It  is  true  that  a  tide  of 
criticism  hostile  to  the  integrity  of  Genesis  has  been 
rising  for  some  years ;  but  it  seems  to  beat  vainly 
against  a  solid  rock,  and  the  ebb  has  now  evidently 
set  in.  The  battle  of  historical  and  linguistic  criticism 
may  indeed  rage  for  a  time  over  the  history  and  date 
of  the  Mosaic  law,  but  in  so  far  as  Genesis  is  con- 
cerned it  has  been  practically  decided  by  scientific 
exploration. 

Since  writing  the  preceding  pages  I  have  met 
with  a  remarkable  paper  by  Mr.  Horatio  Hale  in  the 
Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada)-  It  is 
one  which  should  commend  itself  to  the  study  of 
every  Biblical  scholar  and  archaeologist ;  but  is 
contained  in  a  periodical  which  perhaps  meets  the 
1  Vol.  IX.  Sec.  II.  1891. 


THE  DISPERSION  207 

eyes  of  few  of  them.  In  this  paper  he  maintains  the 
importance  of  language  as  a  ground  of  anthropo- 
logical classification,  and  then  uses  his  wide  knowledge 
of  the  languages  of  American  aborigines,  and  other  rude 
races,  to  show  that  the  grammatical  complexity  and 
logical  perfection  of  these  languages  implies  a  high 
intellectual  capacity  in  their  original  framers,  and 
that  where  such  complex  and  perfect  languages  are 
spoken  by  very  rude  tribes  like  the  Australian 
aborigines,  they  originated  with  cultivated  and 
intellectual  peoples — in  the  case  of  the  Australian, 
with  the  civilised  primitive  Dravidians  of  India.  He 
thus  shows  that  languages,  like  alphabets,  have 
undergone  a  process  of  degradation,  so  that  those 
of  modern  times  are  less  perfect  exponents  of 
thought  than  those  which  preceded  them,  and  that 
primitive  man  in  his  earliest  state  must  have  been 
endowed  with  as  high  intellectual  powers  as  any  of 
his  descendants. 

On  similar  grounds  he  shows  that  it  is  not  in  the 
outlying  barbarous  races  that  we  are  to  look  for  truly 
primitive  man,  since  here  we  have  merely  degraded 
types,  and  that  the  primitive  centres  of  man  and 
language  must  have  been  in  the  old  historic  lands  of 
Western  Asia  and  Northern  Africa.  On  this  view 
the  time  necessary  for  the  development  of  the  arts  ol 
civilisation  and  of  extensive  colonisation  would  not 
be  great.  *  In  five  centuries  a  single  human  pair 
planted  in  a  fertile  oasis  might  have  given  origin  to 
a  people  of  five  hundred  thousand  souls,  numerous 


208  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

enough  to  have  sent  out  emigrations  to  the  nearest 
inviting  lands.'  The  same  lapse  of  time  would  have 
sufficed  to  develop  agriculture,  to  domesticate  animals, 
and  to  make  some  progress  in  architectural  and  other 
arts  of  life.  He  quotes  the  remarkable  passage  of 
Reclus l  as  to  the  agency  of  woman  in  the  inventions 
of  early  art,  and  shows  that  this  accords  with  more 
modern  experience  among  the  less  civilised  nations. 
It  is  obvious  that  all  this  tends  to  bring  scientific 
anthropology  into  the  closest  relation  with  the  old 
Biblical  history,  though  Hale,  in  deference,  perhaps, 
to  modern  prejudices,  does  not  refer  to  this. 

In  the  passage  quoted  by  Hale,  Reclus  says  :  *  It 
is  to  woman  that  mankind  owes  all  that  has  made  us 
men.'  Following  this  hint  of  the  ingenious  French 
writer,  we  may  imagine  the  first  man  and  woman 
inhabiting  some  fertile  region,  rich  in  fruits  and  other 
natural  products,  and  subsisting  at  first  on  the  un- 
cultivated bounty  of  nature.  With  the  birth  of  their 
first  child,  perhaps  before,  would  come  the  need  of 
shelter  either  in  some  dry  cavern  or  booth  of  poles 
and  leaves  or  bark,  carpeted  perhaps  with  moss  or 
boughs  of  pine.  This  would  be  the  first  'home,' 
with  the  woman  for  its  housekeeper.  We  may 
imagine  the  man  bringing  to  it  the  lamb  or  kid  whose 
dam  he  had  killed,  and  the  woman,  with  motherly 
instinct,  pitying  the  little  orphan  and  training  it  to  be 
a  domestic  pet,  the  first  of  tamed  animals.  She,  too, 
would  store  grain,  seeds  and  berries  for  domestic  use, 
Primitive  Folk  (Contemporary  Science  Series),  p.  58. 


THE  DISPERSION  209 

and  some  of  these  germinating  would  produce  patches 
of  grain,  or  shrubs,  or  fruit  trees  around  the  hut. 
Noticing  these  and  protecting  them,  she  would  be 
the  first  gardener  and  orchardist.  The  woman  and  her 
children  might  add  to  the  cultivated  plants  or  domes- 
ticated quadrupeds  and  birds ;  and  the  man  would 
be  induced,  in  the  intervals  of  hunting  and  fishing,  to 
guard,  protect,  and  fence  them. 

When  the  boys  grew  up,  to  one  of  them  might  be 
assigned  the  care  of  the  sheep  and  goats,  to  the  other 
the  culture  of  the  little  farm,  while  they  might  aid 
their  father  in  erecting  a  better  and  more  artistic 
habitation,  the  first  attempt  at  architecture,  and  in 
introducing  artificial  irrigation  to  render  their  field 
more  fertile.  Is  not  this  little  romance  of  M.  Elie 
Reclus  perfectly  in  harmony  with  the  old  familiar 
story  in  Genesis,  and  also  with  the  most  recent 
results  of  modern  science  ? 


210  GEOLOGY  AND  HISJORY 


CHAPTER  XIII 
SUMMARY  OF  RESULTS 

IT  may  be  well,  in  conclusion,  to  sum  up  the  general 
truths  we  have  arrived  at  in  relation  to  the  place  of 
man  in  the  great  and  long-continued  drama  of  the 
earth's  geological  history. 

I.  We  have  found  no  link  of  derivation  connec- 
ting man  with  the  lower  animals  which  preceded  him. 
He  appears  before  us  as  a  new  departure  in  creation, 
without  any  direct  relation  to  the  instinctive  life  of 
the  lower  animals.  The  earliest  men  are  no  less  men 
than  their  descendants,  and  up  to  the  extent  of  their 
means,  inventors,  innovators,  and  introducers  of  new 
modes  of  life,  just  as  much  as  they.  We  have  not 
even  been  able  as  yet  to  trace  man  back  to  the 
harmless  golden  age.  As  we  find  him  in  the  caves  and 
gravels  he  is  already  a  fallen  man,  out  of  harmony 
with  his  environment  and  the  foe  of  his  fellow 
creatures,  contriving  against  them  instruments  of 
destruction  more  fatal  than  those  furnished  by  nature 
to  the  carnivorous  wild  beasts.  Yet  we  would  fain 
believe  in  an  Edenic  age  of  innocence  ;  and  physio- 
logical probability,  as  well  as  the  old  story  in  Genesis, 


SUMMARY  OF  RESULTS 


211 


Scheme  of  possible  Correlation  of  the  Geological 
and  Historical  Records  as  to  Early  Man,  as 
the  Facts  appear  in  the  present  Stage  of  Inves- 
tigation, May  1894. 


Submergence 


lit 

$>x« 


Deluge 


o 

I 

i 

u 


II 
i  1 

I   s 


Primitive 
Man 


Adam 


O   2 


212  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

demands  that  we  should  suppose  a  primitive  condition 
in  which  man,  careless  and  happy,  should  subsist  on 
the  spontaneous  bounty  of  nature  in  some  favoured 
*  garden  of  the  Lord.' 

2.  If  we  inquire  as  to  the  nature  of  the  interval 
which  separates  man  from  the  lower  animals,  we  find 
that  it  exists  with  reference  both  to  his  rational  and 
physical  nature.     With  respect  to  the  first  we  may 
affirm  in  man  the  existence  of  a  lower  (psychical) 
intelligence,  similar  to  that  of  the  inferior  animals, 
and  of  a  spiritual  nature  allying   him  with   higher 
intelligences,  and  with  God  Himself.     Rightly  con- 
sidered, this  places  the  doctrine  of  creation  in  a  very 
firm  position.     Those  who  deny  it  must  adopt  one  of 
two  alternatives.     Either  they  must  refuse  to  admit 
the  evidence  in  man  of  any  nature  higher  than  that 
of  brutes — a  conclusion  which  common  sense,  as  well 
as  mental  science,  must  always  refuse  to  admit — or 
they  must  attempt  to  bridge  over  the  '  chasm,'  as  it 
has  been  called,  which  separates  the  instinctive  nature 
of  the  animal  from  the  rational  and  moral  nature  of 
man — an  effort  confessedly  futile. 

3.  As  to  the  body  of  man,  the  case  is  different,  but 
still  perfectly  in  harmony  with  the  idea  of  his  higher 
nature.      Man,   as   to   his   body,   is   confessedly   an 
animal,  of  the  earth  earthy.     He  is  also  a  member  of 
the  province  vertebrata,   and   the  class   mammalia ; 
but  in  that  class  he  constitutes  not  only  a  distinct 
species   and   genus,  but   even  a  distinct  family,   or 
order.     In  other  words,  he  is  the  sole  species  of  his 


SUMMARY  OF  RESULTS  213 

genus,  and  of  his  family,  or  order.  He  is  thus 
separated,  by  a  great  gap,  from  all  the  animals 
nearest  to  him  ;  and  even  if  we  admit  the  doctrine, 
as  yet  unproved,  of  the  derivation  of  one  species 
from  another  in  the  case  of  the  lower  animals,  we 
are  unable  to  supply  the  '  missing  links '  which  would 
be  required  to  connect  man  with  any  group  of  in- 
ferior animals.  This  physical  distinctness  has  also 
a  special  significance,  inasmuch  as  it  depends  on 
certain  negative  peculiarities  such  as  the  absence  of 
clothing,  of  natural  weapons  of  attack  and  defence, 
as  well  as  on  the  positive  properties  of  the  erect 
posture,  the  hands  adapted  to  various  kinds  of  mani- 
pulation, and  the  special  sensory  gifts.  Thus  viewed 
in  relation  to  his  environment,  his  wants  as  well  as 
his  possessions  in  regard  to  structures  and  powers, 
would  be  fatal  to  any  creature  not  possessed  of  his 
intelligence,  and  we  cannot  conceive  how  such  priva- 
tions or  such  gifts  could  spontaneously  arise  in 
nature. 

4.  No  fact  of  science  is  more  certainly  established 
than  the  recency  of  man  in  geological  time.  Not 
only  do  we  find  no  trace  of  his  remains  in  the  older 
geological  formations,  but  we  find  no  remains  even  of 
the  animals  nearest  to  him  ;  and  the  conditions  of 
the  world  in  those  periods  seem  to  unfit  it  for  the 
residence  of  man.  If,  following  the  usual  geological 
system,  we  divide  the  whole  history  of  the  earth  into 
four  great  periods,  extending  from  the  oldest  rocks 
known  to  us,  the  eozoic,  or  archaean,  up  to  the 


214  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

modern,  we  find  remains  of  man,  or  his  works,  only 
in  the  latest  of  the  four,  and  in  the  later  part  of  this. 
In  point  of  fact,  there  is  no  indisputable  proof  of  the 
presence  of  man  until  we  reach  the  early  modern 
period.  This  is,  no  doubt,  what  was  to  have  been 
expected  on  the  supposition  of  the  orderly  develop- 
ment of  the  chain  of  animal  life  in  the  long  geologic 
eons  ;  but  it  is  not  by  any  means  the  only  hypothesis 
that  was  possible  when,  for  example,  the  Book  of 
Genesis  was  written.  A  more  fanciful  cosmologist 
might  at  that  time  have  given  precedence  to  man, 
and  might  have  supposed  that  the  other  animate 
were  produced  later,  and  for  his  benefit,  or  his  injury. 
This  is  the  view  of  the  sacred  writer  himself  with 
respect  to  the  local  group  of  animals  intended  to  be 
in  immediate  association  with  the  first  man.  Re- 
stricted in  this  way,  the  statement  of  a  group  of 
animals  created  with  man  in  his  earliest  abode  is  not 
contradictory  to  the  order  in  Genesis  first,  nor 
scientifically  improbable.  We  have  seen  that  in  any 
case  the  deductions  from  geology  are  in  harmony 
with  the  earliest  revelations  made  to  the  human 
mind  on  the  subject,  and  in  accordance  with  all  the 
later  facts  of  actual  history. 

5.  The  absolute  date  of  the  first  appearance  of 
man  cannot  perhaps  be  fixed  within  a  few  years  or 
centuries,  either  by  human  chronology  or  by  the 
science  of  the  earth.  It  would  seem,  however,  that 
the  Bible  history,  as  well  as  such  hints  as  we  can 
gather  from  the  history  of  other  nations,  limits  us  to 


SUMMARY  OF  RESULTS  215 

two  or  three  thousand  years  before  the  Deluge  of 
Noah,  while  some  estimates  of  the  antiquity  of  man, 
based  on  physical  changes  or  ancient  history,  or  on 
philology,  greatly  exceed  this  limit.  If  the  earliest 
men  were  those  of  the  river  gravels  and  caves,  men 
of  the  '  mammoth  age,'  or  of  the  *  palaeolithic '  or 
palaeocosmic  period,  we  can  form  some  definite  ideas 
as  to  their  possible  antiquity.  They  colonised  the 
continents  immediately  after  the  elevation  of  the  land 
from  the  great  subsidence  which  closed  the  pleisto- 
cene or  glacial  period,  in  what  has  been  called  the 
1  continental '  period  of  the  post-glacial  age,  because 
the  new  lands  then  raised  out  of  the  sea  exceeded  in 
extent  those  which  we  have  now.  We  have,  as 
stated  in  a  previous  chapter,  some  measures  of  the 
date  of  this  great  continental  elevation,  and  know 
that  its  distance  from  our  time  must  fall  within  about 
eight  thousand  years.  Many  indications,  both  in 
Europe  and  America,  lead  to  the  belief  that  it  is 
physically  impossible  that  man  could  have  colonised 
the  northern  hemisphere  at  an  earlier  date  than  this 
geologically  recent  continental  period. 

6.  There  is  but  one  species  of  man,  though  many 
races  and  varieties  ;  and  these  races  or  varieties  seem 
to  have  developed  themselves  at  a  very  early  time 
and  have  shown  a  remarkable  fixity  in  their  later 
history.  There  is  reason  to  believe,  however,  from 
various  physiological  facts,  that  this  is  a  very  general 
law  of  varietal  forms,  v/hich  are  observed  to  appear 
rapidly  or  suddenly,  and  then  in  favourable  circum- 


216  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

stances  to  be  propagated  continuously.  It  would 
seem  also  to  apply  to  the  introduction  of  forms 
regarded  as  species,  since  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  a 
genus  at  or  near  its  origin  represented  by  its 
maximum  number  of  specific  forms. 

7.  The  precise  locality  of  the  origin  of  man  can 
be  defined  on  probable  grounds  as  in  a  temperate 
region,  supplied  with  the  vegetable  productions  most 
useful  to  him  in  a  natural  state,  and  free  from  destruc- 
tive  animal  rivals.     We   can  scarcely   suppose  that 
this  locality  can  have  been  in  any  of  those  parts  of 
the  world  in  which  man  finds  the  greatest  difficulty 
in  subsisting,  or  becomes  most  degraded,  though  this 
paradoxical  view  has  been  held  by  some  archaeolo- 
gists.    It  must  rather  have  been  in  some  fertile  and 
salubrious  region  of  the  northern  hemisphere ;  and 
probability  as  well  as  tradition  points  to  those  regions 
in  South-Western  Asia  which  have  not  only  been  the 
earliest  historical  abodes  of  man,  but  are  also  the 
centres  of  the  animals  and  plants  most  useful  to  him. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  here  that   Haeckel,  on  purely 
physical    grounds,    decides    against    Europe,   Africa, 
Australia,  and  America,  and  concludes  that  'most 
circumstances  indicate  Southern  Asia.' 

8.  It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  the  diluvial 
interlude   gives   a   double   origin   of  man ;   but   the 
historical   accounts  of  the  neocosmic    dispersion,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  refer  us  in  this  case  also  to  the 
same  regions  of  South-Western  Asia.     The  traditions 
which  ascribe  human  origin  to  a  '  Mountain  of  the 


SUMMARY  OF  RESULTS  217 

North*  refer  to  the  second  dispersion,  and  coincide 
with  the  Ararat  of  Genesis  and  the  c  Mountain  of  the 
North '  on  which  the  ship  of  Hasisadra  was  supposed 
by  the  Chaldeans  to  have  grounded. 

9.  We  are  now  in  a  position  to  correlate  the 
historical  Deluge  with  the  great  geographical  changes 
which  closed  the  palanthropic  age.  This,  when 
regarded  as  an  established  fact,  furnishes  the  solution 
of  many  of  the  most  disputed  questions  of  anthro- 
pology. The  misuse  of  the  Deluge  in  the  early 
history  of  geology,  in  employing  it  to  account  for 
changes  that  took  place  long  before  the  advent  of 
man,  certainly  should  not  cause  us  to  neglect  its 
legitimate  uses,  when  these  arise  in  the  progress  of 
investigation.  It  is  evident  that  if  this  correlation  be 
accepted  as  probable,  it  must  modify  many  views 
now  held  as  to  the  antiquity  of  man.  In  that  case, 
the  modern  rubble  spread  over  plateaus  and  in  river 
valleys,  far  above  the  reach  of  the  present  floods,  may 
be  accounted  for,  not  by  the  ordinary  action  of  the 
existing  streams,  but  by  the  abnormal  action  of 
currents  of  water  diluvial  in  their  character.  Further, 
since  the  historical  Deluge  cannot  have  been  of  very 
long  duration,  the  physical  changes  separating  the 
deposits  containing  the  remains  of  palaeocosmic  men 
from  those  of  later  date  would,  in  like  manner,  be 
accounted  for,  not  by  slow  processes  of  subsidence, 
elevation,  and  erosion,  but  by  causes  of  a  more  abrupt 
and  cataclysmic  character. 

Finally,  it  has  been  the  tendency  of  modern  geo- 


2i8  GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 

logical  and  archaeological  discovery  to  attach  more 
and  more  value  and  importance  to  the  ancient  records 
of  the  human  race,  and  especially  to  those  precious 
documents  which  have  been  preserved  to  our  time  in 
the  Book  of  Genesis. 

We  have  merely  glanced  cursorily  at  a  few  of  the 
salient  points  of  the  relation  of  the  primitive  history 
of  man  in  Genesis  to  modern  scientific  discovery. 
Many  other  details  might  have  been  adduced  as 
tending  to  show  similar  coincidences  of  these  two 
distinct  lines  of  evidence.  Enough  has,  however, 
been  said  to  indicate  the  remarkable  manner  in  which 
the  history  in  Genesis  has  anticipated  modern  dis- 
covery, and  to  show  that  this  ancient  book  is  in  every 
way  trustworthy,  and  as  remote  as  possible  from  the 
myths  and  legends  of  ancient  heathenism,  while  it 
shows  the  historical  origin  of  beliefs  which  in  more  or 
less  corrupted  forms  lie  at  the  foundations  of  the  oldest 
religions  of  the  Gentiles,  and  find  their  true  significance 
in  that  of  the  Hebrews.  To  the  Christian  the  record 
in  Genesis  has  a  still  higher  value,  as  constituting 
those  historical  groundworks  of  the  plan  of  salvation 
to  which  our  Lord  Himself  so  often  referred,  and  on 
which  He  founded  so  much  of  His  teaching. 


INDEX 


ADAM,  description  of,  64 
Adon,  the  name,  180 
Akkadian  kingdom,  foundation 

of,  108 

Alphabets,  early,  108 
Amunoph  III.,  177 
Amunoph  IV.,  177 
Anakim,  the,  65 
Animals,  remains  of,  23,  30,  38, 

43,  45,  46,  48,  50,  74,  96,  98 
Antediluvians,  identification  of, 

'25 
Anthropic  age,  definition  of,  17; 

events  of,  39 
Anthropology,  16 
Archaean  age,  the,  19 
Ark,  the,  description  of,  135 
Arrow-headed    characters,    use 

of,  1 08 
Artemis,  160 
Aten,  worship  of,  177 
Atlantis,  fable  of,  156 
Auriferous  gravel,  finds  in,  34 


BEARS,  cave,  46 
Beni  Elohim,  132 


Beni  ha  Adam,  132 
Bones,  human,  gnawed,  47 
Boule,  on  deposits  at  Schweiz- 

ersbild,  87 

Britain,  early  inhabitants  of,  103 
Broca,  on  skulls,  6 1 
Burials,  discoveries  of,  56 


CAIN,  the  race  of,  131 
Canaan,  migration  of,  193 
Canstadt  race,  the,  51,  80;  age 
of,  70  ;  condition  of,  75  ;  in- 
terments of,    77 ;    skulls   of, 
81 

Carthaillac  on  palanthropic  age, 
70  ;  on  the  mortuary  customs 

of,  77 

Carving,  specimens  of,  49 
Castelnedolo,  skeleton  at,  29 
Cave  dwellers,  48  ;  their  food, 

49 

Caverns,  various,  42 
Celtse,  the,  description  of,  104 
Cenozoic  age,  the,  20  ;  changes 
of,   24;  events  of,  39;   rela- 
tions of,  84 


220 


GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 


Chaldean  version  of  the  Deluge, 
137  ;    creation   tablets,    107  ; 
Genesis  quoted,  113 
Cheth,  children  of,  167 
Chipped  Stone  age,  the,  69 
Chronometers,  geological,  89 
Civilisation,  early  postdiluvian, 

118 

Clichy  skull,  the,  60 
Climate  of  the  pliocene,  25  ;  of 
the  eocene,  27  ;  changes  of, 
35.  36;  of  the  post-glacial 
age,  36  ;  of  the  palanthropic 
age,  38,  40,  171 

Creation,     the,     order    of,    in 
Genesis,     106,      112,     114; 
Chaldean  account  of,  112 
Cresswell  caves,  description  of, 

95 

Cro-magnon  cave,  the,  5 1 
Cro-magnon  race,  the,  51  ; 
skeletons  of,  53  ;  skulls  of, 
61,  81 ;  age  of,  70;  condition 
of,  75  ;  appearance  of,  76  ; 
belief  of,  76 ;  interments  of, 

77 

Curse,  the,  120 
Cushite  kingdom,  foundation  of, 

108 
Cushite  migration,  the,  192 

DAWKINS   on    palaeolithic  and 

neolithic  periods,  93 
Days  of  creation,  the,  14,  18 
Delta,  the,  age  of,  174 
Deluge,  the,  accounts  of,   107  ; 

story  of,  121  ;  Lenormant  on, 

123;  conclusions  as  to,  126; 

prevalence  of  story  of,   127  ; 

physical     aspects     of,     135 ; 


Chaldean  version  of,  136 ; 
history  of,  137  ;  was  it  mira- 
culous? 140;  was  it  universal? 

147,  IS* 

Diana,  160 

Dispersion  of  man,  the,  108 

Druses,  the,  198 

Dupont  on  cave  of  Goyet,  46  ; 
on  primitive  man,  73  ;  on 
plain  dwellers,  74;  on  Fron- 
tal caves,  98 

EARTH,  the  stages  of  its  history, 

15,  18  ;  age  of,  18 
Eber,  children  of,  179 
Eden,  site  of,  114 
Edwards,     Miss,    criticism    of, 

171 
Egypt,    history    of,    168 ;    first 

colonist^  of,  174 
Elephant  in  Europe,  the,  38 
Elevation  of  land  in  post-glacial 

age,  36 

Elohim,  use  of  the  name,  112 
Embalming,    early  practice   of, 

78 

Engis  skull,  the,  60 
Eocene  age,    the,  23;  changes 

of,  24 

Eozoic  age,  the,  19 
Euphrates,  the,  114 
Eve,  story  of,  160 
Evolution    of    man,    the,    22 ; 

vagaries  of,  118 
Exodus,  the,  Pharaoh  of,  179 

FALL  OF  MAN,  the,  116 
Fauna     of     palanthropic     age, 

changes  of,  86 
Flints,  worked,  28 


INDEX 


221 


Food  of  cave  dwellers,  49 
Furfooz  caves,  description  of,  98 

GENERATIONS  OF  NOAH,  the, 

184 

Genesis,  order  of  creation  in,  106 
Geologist,  the,  method  of,  12 
Giants,  a  race  of,  63 
Gibraltar  skull,  the,  60 
Glacial  age,  the,  25 
Globe,  incandescent,  picture  of, 

18 

Goyet,  cave  of,  description  of,  46 
Greenwell  on  men  of  Britain, 

103 
Crenelle,  skull  of,  60;  deposit 

at,  94 

HALE  on  importance  of  lan- 
guage, 206 

Karaites,  migrations  of,  188 
Hasisadra,  the  Chaldean  Noah, 

118 

Hebrew  annals,  truth  of,  106 
Heth,  167 

Higher  criticism,  Sayce  on,  109 
Historian,  the,  method  of,  12 
Hittites,  the,  inroad  of,  198 
Holmes  on  worked  flints,  31 
Homeric  heroes,  reality  of,  166 
Horus,  sons  of,  159 
Hyksos,  the,  181 

IDINU,  or  Eden,  114 

Ightham,  worked  flints  of,  31 

Interments,  discoveries  of,  56  ; 
mode  of,  77 

Isha,  story  of,  160 

Ivory,  ornaments  of,  58;  en- 
graving on,  74 


JAHVEH,  133 

Japhet,  migrations  of,  189,  190 
Jebel  Assart,  flint  chips  at,  171 
Jehovah  Elohim,  use  of  the 

name,  112,  132 
Jerusalem,  ancient  state  of,  179 

KARUN,  a  river  of  Eden,  114, 

116 

Kerkhat,  the,  114 
Kheta,  or  Khatti,  167 
Kneeling  posture  in  interments, 

77 

LAUGERIE  BASSE,  cave  at  51  ; 

skeleton  at,  58 
Lebanon  caves,  human  remains 

in,  43,  45  ;  visit  to,  202 
Lenormant  on  the  Deluge,  123 ; 

on  the  Ark,  136 
Lion,  the  cave,  46 
Lyell,  on  Falls  of  Niagara,  124 

MAMMALS  in  palanthropic  age, 
species  of,  37 

Mammoth  age,  cave  of,  50 

Mammoth,  the,  in  Europe,  38  ; 
extinction  of,  74 

Man,  date  of  his  appearance, 
21,  213 ;  his  earliest  remains 
still  human,  22  ;  antecedents 
of,  23  ;  his  remains  overlaid, 
35  ;  in  Europe,  35 ;  in  pal- 
anthropic age,  40 ;  how  dis- 
tinguished, 41  ;  his  remains 
at  Nahr-el-Kelb,  45  ;  at  Goy- 
et, 46 ;  gnawed  bones  of, 
47  ;  a  cave  dweller,  48  ;  his 
ornaments,  48,  58 ;  carving 
of,  49;  food  of,  49;  his 


GEOLOGY  AND  HISTORY 


physical  characters,  51  ;  his 
remains  at  Cro-magnon,  51  ; 
skeleton  of,  at  Mentone,  58 ; 
varieties  in  skull  of,  60 ;  gi- 
gantic size  of,  62 ;  a  feebler 
race,  63 ;  conditions  of,  71; 
Dupont  on  primitive,  73 ; 
unprogressive  character  of 
men  of  mammoth  age,  75  ; 
beliefs  of,  76  ;  mortuary  cus- 
toms of  palanthropic,  77  ; 
change  of,  from  palaeocosmic 
to  neocosmic,  91  ;  neolithic, 
IOI  ;  of  Britain,  103 ;  in 
Eden,  US;  condition  of 
palanthropic,  116;  recency  of, 
213  ;  locality  of  his  origin,  216 

Meeting-place  of  geology  and 
history,  13 

Mentone  skeleton,  the,  58 

Mesozoic  age,  the,  19 

Metals,  the  knowledge  of,  118 

Miocene  age,  the,  23  ;  changes 
of,  24 ;  monkeys  of,  27 

Mitanni,  181 

Mizraim,  193 

Monkeys,  miocene,  27 

Mortillet  on  the  stone  age,  69 

Moses :  his  knowledge  of  Divine 
name,  180 

Mourlon  on  pleistocene  remains, 

30 

Musical  instruments,  invention 
of,  118 


NAHR-EL-KELB,  caverns  of,  44  j 

people  of,  203 
Neanderthal  skull,  the,  60 
Neanthropic  age,  definition  of, 


17 ;  events  of,  39 ;  men  of, 

95 

Nebula,  picture  of,  1 8 
Necklace,  a  shell,  48 
Neocosmic  age,  appearance  of, 

men  of,  91,  102 
Neolithic  age,  men  of,  IOI 
Niagara,  Lyell's  use  of,  124 
Nile  valley,  limestones  of,  1 68, 

241  ;  appearance  of,  174 
Nimrod,  kingdom  of,  190 
Noah,  story  of,  121 
Nuesch  on  deposits  at  Schweiz- 

ersbild,  87 


OLD  man  of  Cro-magnon,  53 ; 

supposed  history  of,  65 
Ornaments,  remains  of,  48,  58 


PALAEOLITHIC  implements,  dis- 
coveries of,  31 

Palaeozoic  age,  the,  19 

Palanthropic  age,  definition  of, 
17;  number  of  species  of 
mammals  in,  37  ;  climate  of, 
38 ;  land  of,  40 ;  caves  of,  46 ; 
animals  of,  50  ;  man  of,  5 1  ; 
conditions  of,  69;  divisions 
of,  70 ;  tragic  end  of,  85 ; 
changes  in  fauna  of,  80 ; 
subsidence  of,  88 

Palestine,  people  of,  197  ;  his- 
tory of,  20 1 

Paviland  skull,  the,  60 

Petrie :  his  photographic  por- 
traits, 1 80 

Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus,  the,  179 

Phoenicians,  the,  193 


INDEX 


223 


Pictet  on  number  of  species  in 

palanthropic  age,  37 
Pinches  on  Chaldean   Genesis, 

"3 

Plain   dwellers,  51 ;   conditions 

of,  74 
Pleistocene   age,    definition    of, 

17  ;   history   of,    23  ;   human 

remains  of,  30  ;  events  of,  39 
Pliocene  age,  23  ;   changes  of, 

24 ;  human  remains  of,   29  ; 

events  of,  39 
Polished   Stone  age,   the,   69; 

men  of,  101 
Post-glacial  age,  26  ;  elevation 

of,  36 
Punites,  193 

QUATERNARY  period,  the,  20 
Quatrefages     on     Castelnedolo 

skeleton,    29 ;    on    Truchere 

skull,  84 

RA,  worship  of,  177 
Recency  of  man,  213 
Reclus,  romance  of,  208 
Reindeer  age,  the,  38,  50 
Rhinoceros  in  Europe,  the,  38 
Riviere  on   Mentone  skeleton, 
58,62 

SAYCE  on  the  higher  criticism, 

109 

Scale  of  earth's  history,  a,  22 
Schliemann,  discoveries  of,  166 
Schweizersbild,  deposits  at,  87 
Semites,  migrations,  189 
Seth,  the  race  of,  131 
Shell  ornaments,  remains  of,  48, 

58 


Sickle,  wooden,  172 

Silures,  the,  103 

Skeleton  of  Castelnedolo,  29; 
Mentone,  58 ;  of  Laugerie 
Basse,  58 

Skull  from  Val  d'Arno,  29 ;  of 
Cro-magnon,  53>  ^2  >  °f 
Clichy,  Crenelle,  Gibraltar, 
Paviland,  Neanderthal,  Engis, 
60 ;  of  Canstadt,  81  ;  of 
Truchere,  83 

Species,  number  of  palanthropic, 

37 

Sphinx,  the,  history  of,  176 
Spy,  imterments  at,  56 
Stone  ages,  the,  69 
Submergence,  records  of,  148 
Subsidence  of  palanthropic  age, 

88  ;  date  of,  90 

TAMMUZ,  story  of,  161 

Taylor  on  early  men  of  Britain, 

103 
Teeth,    human,    condition    of, 

63 

Tel-el-Amarna  tablets,  16$,  177 
Tigris,  the,  114 
Trenton,  flints  of,  32 
Tristram  on  cave  shelters,  44 

VEZERE,  rock  shelters  of,  51 

WHISTLE,  bone,  116 
Woman  of  Cro  magnon,  55 
Woolly  rhinoceros  in   Europe, 
the,  38 

ZITTEL  on  number  of  species  of 
mammals,  37 


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